The city of Arlington will mail out the first round of bills Monday Oct. 1, 2012 to natural gas drillers, who will begin paying a $2,397 annual fee per well to fund a new emergency preparedness and response program.

Arlington is the first city in the Barnett Shale to launch such a program, designed to help firefighters better prevent and respond to natural gas releases and other problems. Read more »

Worries about weaker economic growth dragged down oil prices Monday Sept 24, 2012.

Oil has now fallen five of the last six trading days. It fell more than 6 percent last week.

Benchmark crude fell 96 cents, or 1 percent, to finish at $91.93 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices for other petroleum products dropped, too.

In London, Brent crude dropped $1.61 at $109.81 on the ICE Futures exchange. Read more »

Quantum Energy Partners , a leading energy private equity firm, is pleased to announce the formation of Vitruvian Exploration II, LLC  with industry veteran Richard Lane. Supported by a $250 million equity commitment from Quantum, Vitruvian II will pursue a multi-faceted strategy to build a diversified portfolio of high quality, emerging and undeveloped oil and gas assets in North American unconventional resource plays. Read more »

Dr. Michael Blatt, Blanche Rybeck, Bill Hughes and others say air pollution from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling is an issue environmental regulators need to take seriously. Read more »