Additional

January natural gas is set to open a penny lower Wednesday morning at $1.81 as traders have to swallow yet another near-term weather forecast calling for additional moderation. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

FERC has directed Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) to respond to comments from more than two-dozen local government and other entities that have commented in the Northeast Energy Direct (NED) pipeline project docket [CP16-21;PF14-22]. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission also said the Kinder Morgan Inc. pipeline’s November certificate filing (see Daily GPI,Nov. 20) “did not provide adequate data for alternative comparisons” and enumerated nine specific requests for additional information. FERC gave TGP 20 days from the date of the Dec. 8 letter to respond. “Also, we expect to be requesting other clarifications or information in the future,” the Commission said. The $5 billion NED project would provide additional pipeline capacity from Appalachia shale basins to Northeast markets.

A pipeline proposed by PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC to connect Marcellus Shale natural gas with markets in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey would have saved consumers more than $890 million during the winter of 2013-2014 in natural gas and electricity costs, according to an analysis commissioned by PennEast.

The head of the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lamented a shortage of BLM inspectors that has caused the agency to miss timely inspections on about 40% of the nation’s high-priority oil and gas sites.

California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday outlined a multi-billion-dollar state budget that includes $850 million of revenues from the state’s cap-and-trade auction for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions credits, a preparedness program for increased rail shipments of oil into the state from Wyoming, and additional spending to implement new rules on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

FERC staff Friday issued a favorable draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s (Transco) proposal to build a $182 million expansion of its system to meet growing natural gas demand in New York City and the Rockaways with Marcellus Shale gas supplies.

RCW Energy Serviceshas expanded its water-transfer business serving the Eagle Ford and other shale plays. The company opened an office in Pleasanton, TX, south of San Antonio, to the Eagle Ford and another office in Midland, TX, to serve the Permian Basin. Besides these two plays, RCW serves the Haynesville Shale.

Production in the Marcellus Shale over the past few years “has been nothing short of epic,” and it is straining infrastructure to the point that the Appalachian region is in need of larger interstate connections, said Genscape Inc. senior natural gas analyst Andy Krebs.

A multi-pad drilling project to test Marcellus and Utica formations in southern Ohio may answer some of the lingering questions about the real resource potential of the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, an analyst said Tuesday.