Cabot begins fracking with natural gas in Pa.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. became the latest exploration company - and the first in northeastern Pennsylvania - to use natural gas to fuel its hydraulic fracturing operations.

The Texas drilling company, which is producing Marcellus Shale gas in Susquehanna County, announced Monday it has converted the compressors employed in the fracking process to use a combination of diesel and natural gas, displacing about 70 percent of the diesel typically used in the high-energy process.

Oil and gas producers have been converting drilling rigs and fracking operations from diesel to natural gas to improve air emissions and to lower costs.