Oil prices fell to near $99 a barrel Wednesday November 30, 2011 in Asia after a report showed U.S. crude inventories rose more than expected, suggesting demand is tepid.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was down 65 cents to $99.14 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.58 to settle at $99.79 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude was down 11 cents at $110.71 on the ICE futures exchange. Read more »

Jaysson Funkhouser of the U.S. Geologic Survey said Wednesday November 28, 2011 that testing of domestic water wells in the Fayetteville Shale area in Van Buren County is complete, and sampling in Faulkner County will begin the end of this month.

More than 70 wells were sampled in Van Buren County with no indicators found for drilling or fracking fluid, the USGS stated.

In addition, select water samples that were tested for methane gas indicated none was present. Read more »

The state’s draft policy on flaring of natural gas may be delayed until the January 2012 meeting of the State Board of Land Commissioners.

“We still have some work to do on it,” said Ryan Lance, director of the Office of State Lands and Investments.

The draft originally was scheduled to go before the state board, which includes the governor and the other four elected state officials, next month. Read more »

It's like the stories you've read about the California gold rush, but this rush is to West Virginia's northern panhandle and the lure is natural gas.

There are traffic jams in this Wetzel County town, even at mid-day. Almost anything that fits on a trailer can be seen moving up and down Route 2. To ease the congestion, the industry voluntarily suspends truck movement on secondary roads during the hours school buses operate. Read more »