West Virginia lawmakers are considering tax breaks to encourage development of the state's Marcellus shale natural gas field.

A measure endorsed Wednesday Feb. 23, 2011 by the House Finance Committee would tweak several existing programs to aid drillers and related businesses.

One would extend the life of a tax credit for alternative fuel vehicles, and expand it to include their refueling facilities.

Another program would offer gas companies tax credits for in-state research and development. Read more »

Gas prices have increased nearly 17 cents a gallon in the past week. And analysts expect prices to continue higher, following a sharp rise in the price of crude oil.

The national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose 4.3 cents to $3.33, motorist group AAA said Saturday Feb.26, 2011. That marks the fourth day in a row that prices have risen, and brings the national average to the highest level since October 2008.

Gas prices were highest in Hawaii, where drivers paid $3.761 a gallon, on average. Wyoming had the lowest gas prices at roughly, $3.032 a gallon. Read more »

Chesapeake had announced earlier in February that it planned to sell the Fayetteville assets and raise as much as $5 billion.

The Chesapeake Energy asset sale plan comes after activist investor Carl Icahn had announced an interest of more than 5% in Chesapeake, setting off speculation that Icahn would pressure Chesapeake to unlock value in its shares by selling assets. Read more »

When a landowner finds or discovers natural gas deposits in the land that he owns the process of natural gas royalties begins. If the landowner does not have the financial resources to exploit these deposits himself then he could either sell the land to a company that specializes in this type of work or he could lease the land to a company that can come in, exploit the deposits and then the landowner would get paid royalty payments based upon the value and amount of natural gas removed. Read more »