The Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that it will launch a $1.9 million study into how drinking-water supplies are affected by hydraulic fracturing , a method used to turn shale rock into natural gas wells.

Forest Oil Corporation has drilled and completed 10 new natural gas wells in the Deep Basin Nikanassin play with average 24-hour initial test rates of 14 mmcf equivalent a day per well.

TAQA North drilled three test wells in the Horn River Basin this winter and expects to receive data from the wells over the course of the year, which will help the company formulate a development plan.

POST FALLS, Idaho----JayHawk Energy, Inc. is pleased to announce the spud of the Jenks #1, the second well of the Companys multi-well vertical development drilling program located at Crosby Field in Divide County, North Dakota.

Russia's largest privately held oil company, LUKoil, plans to drill the first exploration well at the West Qurna-2 oil field in Iraq, LUKoil CEO Vagit Alekperov said on Wednesday.