2011

A Louisiana government official’s statement that the state will see a decrease in tax revenues in coming years due to natural gas drillers moving their operations from taxable areas in South Louisiana to tax-exempt fields in North Louisiana “could not be further from the truth,” according to Louisiana Oil & Gas Association (LOGA) President Don Briggs.

Global gas producer BG Group plc, which has substantial production under way in the Haynesville Shale and growing output in the Marcellus, said Tuesday its net production in the United States by 2015 will nearly double to 190,000 boe/d from the current 100,000 boe/d.

Offshore drillers Ensco plc and Pride International Inc. are combining in a $7.3 billion cash-and-stock deal, a transaction that highlights the “post-Macondo” world, Ensco CEO Dan Rabun said Monday.

More shale rigs and higher dayrates lifted the latest quarterly earnings of U.S. land-based driller Patterson-UTI Energy Inc. (PTEN), which last week topped Wall Street’s forecasts.

Language included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT) relating to the use of diesel fuel in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) “is extremely unclear and is open to interpretation,” making it unclear if the use of diesel fuel in fracking operations would be a violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), according to a Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) spokesman.

Extreme cold in the Southwest Wednesday through Friday, causing well freeze-offs and compressor failures due to power outages, curtailed gas deliveries to thousands of customers in New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California supplied through El Paso Natural Gas and Transwestern Pipeline.

March natural gas futures rose in light trading Wednesday as traders positioned themselves prior to the release of government storage data Thursday, which is likely to show the second highest withdrawal of the season and be well above last year and five-year averages. At the close March added 8.2 cents to $4.429 and April gained 7.9 cents to $4.445. March crude oil rose 9 cents to $90.86/bbl.

Over Sunday and Monday National Grid customers in New England and New York state fell just short of record gas consumption on the company’s distribution system, National Grid said Tuesday. Bitter cold drove consumption up.

Cheniere Energy Partners LP subsidiary Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC is in talks with EDF Trading for it to contract between 0.7 and 1.5 million metric tons per year of bidirectional processing capacity at the Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Cameron Parish, LA, Cheniere said last Thursday.