2009

As sources expected, prices were mostly higher Friday in the East, where frigid weather would be occupying northern market areas during the weekend and more moderate but still cold conditions were expected in the Midcontinent and South. Also as expected, a generally moderate West outside the mountain areas saw mostly softer quotes.

The White House decision not to include the recently published draft five-year leasing plan for offshore drilling in the Obama administration’s freeze on pending regulations does not signal that the new president supports drilling in long-banned areas of the federal offshore, an Interior Department spokesman said last Thursday.

The 30-inch diameter mainline of the Discovery offshore gathering system in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike in September, has been repaired and is back in service, Williams Partners LP said last Wednesday.

The White House decision not to include the recently published draft five-year leasing plan for offshore drilling in the Obama administration’s freeze on pending regulations does not signal that the new president supports drilling in long-banned areas of the federal offshore, an Interior Department spokesman said Thursday.

The 30-inch diameter mainline of the Discovery offshore gathering system in the Gulf of Mexico, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike in September, has been repaired and is back in service, Williams Partners LP said Wednesday.

The general counsel for two aggregators of Texas municipal electric consumers blames the natural gas futures market for high and volatile power prices in the state. While speculators can be blamed for some of the most recent run-up in gas prices, a globalizing gas market also gives him reason for concern, as gas is expected to be the marginal fuel for Texas power generation for some time.

A “fifth-generation son of the West” and nominee for the top post at the U.S. Department of Interior told a Senate committee Thursday his first priority will be to clean up the scandal-plagued agency. President-elect Obama’s pick for Interior secretary, Ken Salazar, also emphasized the need for renewable energy development and conservation.

The general counsel for two aggregators of Texas municipal electric consumers blames the natural gas futures market for high and volatile power prices in the state. While speculators can be blamed for some of the most recent run-up in gas prices, a globalizing gas market also gives him reason for concern, as gas is expected to be the marginal fuel for Texas power generation for some time.

Investigators believe the partial destruction of a metering shed at a wellhead site near the community of Tomslake, BC, was caused by a deliberate explosion and is the latest in a recent series of minor explosions in the area directed at Encana Corp. gas facilities, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Monday.