Have a popcorn and a coke

You can now buy your natural gas at the Dollar Store, says one of our wittiest editors here. Operators are responding in kind while hoping for a hot summer: the rig count in the Haynesville has gone below 60. The Marcellus count has fallen to around 105—down 29 from its high of 134 last October.

The Eagle Ford, meanwhile, has reached a new high of 235 and the Permian Basin is smokin' with more than 450 rigs turning to the right.

It's quite a turn of events. I came across an old slide deck from an IHS presentation made at our DUG Conference in 2007. Back then, gas-directed drilling had increased markedly over several years, but U.S. production was stuck on an "undulating plateau." IHS said unconventional production increases were not high enough to offset declines elsewhere in the Lower 48.

Today, it's a different story, for we are producing more natural gas than ever before, 72 billion cubic feet a day. Gas storage facilities have upped their capacity but are still topped out. Pipelines are at capacity too, refusing to take any more gas in some places, leading to production shut-ins and well-completion backlogs.

At press time, President Obama issued an executive order creating something that sounds unwieldy—maybe it will cause a regulatory backlog. We hope it means progress. He unveiled "an Interagency Working Group to support safe and responsible development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources (Working Group), to be chaired by the Director of the Domestic Policy Council, or a designated representative."

This interagency group is supposed to coordinate all its studies of air emissions, water quality and best practices related to hydraulic fracturing. Membership will include deputy-level representatives or equivalent officials from 13 Cabinet-level departments and agencies, including the Departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce, Homeland Security, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

An EPA press release shows the agency gets what is happening, even though fracing is still in its gun sights. "In 2011, U.S. crude oil production reached its highest level in eight years…5.59 million barrels per day," it says. "And U.S. natural gas production grew in 2011 as well—the largest year-over-year volumetric increase in history, easily eclipsing the previous all-time production record set in 1973. Overall …oil import dependence declined from 57% in 2008 to 45% in 2011—the lowest level since 1995."

Great news.

The damaging anti-frac documentary everyone in this industry loves to hate, "Gasland," has generated controversy around the world. Now, it has spawned some new films. Alas, "Gasland II," the sequel, is also being made. I have viewed two of these films, "spoiled" and "Switch," and seen a 30-minute clip from another, "Truthland." I have not yet seen "Frack-Nation."

I give "Switch" five stars. It took four years to produce and stars Dr. Scott Tinker, the Texas state geologist and director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. "Switch" is a full-length documentary that has already won awards and is being shown nationwide. It is part of the Switch Energy Project, a multi-pronged campaign to build national understanding of all forms of energy and create open discussion on where our future realistically lies.

It opens with Tinker packing his bags at his Austin home, then flying all over the globe as he inspects different forms of energy. He tells us how each one works and goes over the pros and cons of their feasibility. It's a balanced approach that's very entertaining.

Tinker climbs atop a wind turbine offshore Denmark, looks inside a geothermal plant in Iceland and a coal plant in the Powder River Basin, and takes us inside the nuclear plant in South Texas that uses that same coal. We meet the CEO of Ras Gas' vast liquefied natural gas complex at his office in Qatar. Tinker laughs as he drives a sexy Tesla electric car in California and a gigantic dump truck in the Alberta oil sands. Oh yes, oil and natural gas are in there, too. For information about screening this film, see Switchenergyproject.org.

And please, someone schedule a screening in Washington for Mr. Obama and the Working Group.

We have written our own script for the 3rd annual DUO in Denver on May 15 and 16, where some E&P stars will tell us what's ahead in the Bakken, Permian and other oily plays. And, we hope to see you at our annual Energy Capital Conference in Houston on June 7, where industry executives will discuss the burning issues of the day—plus, we'll be honoring the winners of our annual Oil and Gas Investor Excellence Awards. In addition, two workshops will precede the event on June 6, one for CFOs and their finance teams, and one on how to start an E&P company. Do you have the dream?