Saudi Arabia announced an ambitious natural resource development project in the underpopulated Northern Borders region. Nearly $10 billion in investments and agreements will jumpstart construction on King Abdullah Wa’ad Al-Shamal City, which will include a 1,000 MW power plant and other infrastructure needed to support industrial activity. “President and CEO of Saudi Aramco Khalid Al-Falih said gas exploration operations in the northeast of Saudi Arabia resulted in new discoveries of gas in this region, which will enable a threefold increase in the Kingdom’s available supply.” [Asharq Al Awsat]

Former Chesapeake Energy co-founder Aubrey McClendon’s new venture American Energy Partners purchased 130,000 Utica Shale acreage. “Many Ohio mineral owners who signed leases with Hess Corp., XTO Energy, Phillips Exploration and Paloma Resources now have contracts with McClendon’s Oklahoma City-based firm. His company stated its acreage is in the ‘core of the play, defined as southern Jefferson, Belmont, eastern Guernsey, Harrison, Monroe and Noble counties.’” [The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register]

Natural gas futures prices decreased after the EIA storage report indicated a smaller draw than many analysts had expected. Prices also pulled back on weather forecasts indicating the extreme cold impacting much of the country could abate in coming weeks. But current supply remains tight, as well freeze offs take production offline and utilities continue burning large volumes of gas for power. Natural gas heating demand also remains historically high. [Reuters]