Many customers have taken a more disciplined view of their finances, making sure to submit payments on time and adhere to limits.

Recent inconveniences and disasters have spotlighted the role of regional airlines, which contract with most major airlines and fly two thirds of Houston-based Continental’s flights.

As retail suffers amid the recession, thrift and consignment stores are attracting shoppers in search of not just a good deal but a way to make some extra cash.

• • David Roylance has joined SaveOnEnergy.com as president and chief operating officer. With this hire, Save OnEnergy.com will open an office in Houston.

Transocean announced that the Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1 has started operations in India under a five-year drilling contract with Reliance Industries. Reliance is expected to sublet the rig to Oil and Natural Gas Corp. for the first four years and operate it for the fifth year of the contract.

The booming oil hub called Port Fourchon, a nerve center in the nation’s oil supply chain, is turning into a sitting duck for hurricanes as the beach that protects it from the Gulf of Mexico washes away.

Chesapeake Energy wells drilled through the Barnett Shale, the biggest Texas natural gas field, may have caused earthquakes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, university scientists said.

At one small company, the phone is ringing more often, while another is getting business again from retailers who canceled orders last year.