Summer power supplies along the entire West Coast are looking more than adequate with forecasts calling for increased amounts hydroelectric power and low-priced natural gas in the Pacific Northwest, and the reports that the three-month outage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (Songs) in Southern California now is scheduled to end next month.
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Northeast, Rockies Firm in Overall Flat Trading; Futures Sink
Physical natural gas prices on average were unchanged Tuesday with some Northeast points showing strength along with the Rocky Mountains. Following Monday’s strength, futures prices reverted to the recent trend of probing lower as market technicians fear the worst and point to the likelihood of prices as much as a dollar lower by August. At the close of futures trading, May had retrenched 6.5 cents to $1.951 and June had fallen 6 cents to $2.048. May crude oil added $1.27 to $104.20/bbl.
Jordan Cove Backers: Clean Slate for LNG Export Review
The project manager for the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) project along the south-central coast of Oregon told NGI late Monday that he was surprised by FERC’s move earlier in the day to vacate the project’s 2009 conditional approval to build an LNG import terminal and connecting 230-mile transmission pipeline (see Daily GPI, April 17). The project had expanded into a proposed import-export facility.
New Brunswick Ordered Anti-Fracking Signs Taken Down
An investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) has revealed that a political assistant to New Brunswick’s energy minister asked the province’s electric utility, NB Power, to remove anti-shale signs from its utility poles last summer.
Industry Briefs
Xcel Energy’s Colorado combination utility recently announced decreases in its second quarter natural gas utility bills, along with a slight decrease for its electric utility bills. Xcel’s utility filed its gas cost adjustment and electric commodity adjustment with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission March 15, calling for gas bill decreases of 13-15% for residential and small business customers, compared to the second quarter last year. The yearly comparisons recognize the seasonal nature of gas use. Electric bills for the same residential and small business customers will decrease slightly less than 1% (0.7%) compared to the first quarter this year and up to 7% less than a year earlier. Residential customers using 40 therms paid 44.5 cent/therm last year in the second quarter ($33.83/month) and will pay 33.03 cents/therm this year in the second quarter ($29.27/month).
Oregon LNG Export Project Said to Be On Track
Backers of the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) import-export project along the south-central Oregon coast at Coos Bay are moving ahead with necessary federal regulatory filings in March while monitoring the decline in U.S. natural gas prices and what that will mean for both domestic and global markets.
Norse’s $37M Deal Helps Maintain New York Optimism
Hopeful that it is seeing the final months of a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) tick away in New York, Norse Energy Corp. ASA — a company that, like many others, has suffered through years of uncertainty at the hands of the delay — is positioning itself to hit the ground running in the Marcellus and Utica shales.
Kasich Plan Spares Conventional Oil, Small Natural Gas Producers
Ohio Gov. John Kasich will reportedly unveil a proposal this week to restructure state taxes on oil and gas drilling and pass the savings along to Ohioans in the form of a personal income tax cut, but conventional oil drilling and small producers of natural gas would not be affected.
Kasich Plan Spares Conventional Oil, Small Natural Gas Producers
Ohio Gov. John Kasich will reportedly unveil a proposal next week to restructure state taxes on oil and gas drilling and pass the savings along to Ohioans in the form of a personal income tax cut, but conventional oil drilling and small producers of natural gas would not be affected.
PetroChina Takes Stake in Shell’s Groundbirch Gas Prospect
PetroChina Co. is buying a 20% stake in one of Royal Dutch Shell plc’s unconventional natural gas prospects in northeastern British Columbia, known as Groundbirch, officials confirmed Thursday. The deal is estimated to be worth at least US$1 billion.