Appears

Natural gas production appears to have fallen slightly in the second quarter — dropping more than 8% from the same period a year ago, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. A report issued Friday,on the quarterly results of 24 producers that account for 28% of the gas supplies in the Lower 48 has so far found a sequential decline from the first quarter of 0.6%, with gas volumes by the 24 totaling 11,391 MMcf/d.

Natural gas production appears to have fallen slightly in the second quarter — dropping more than 8% from the same period a year ago, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. A report issued Friday,on the quarterly results of 24 producers that account for 28% of the gas supplies in the Lower 48 has so far found a sequential decline from the first quarter of 0.6%, with gas volumes by the 24 totaling 11,391 MMcf/d.

Despite the record natural gas well completions experienced last winter, Canada’s natural gas production — minus Ladyfern — appears to be on the decline, according to research by Lehman Brothers’ Oil & Gas unit. Total Canadian gas production year-to-date through April increased 2% above 2001. However, without the prolific Ladyfern find, year-to-date volumes would have been down about 2% from the same period and western Canadian production would be down 3%.

Last winter appears to have shaken the meteorological community, most of which — Davis included — predicted a colder than normal winter. It turned out to be the fifth warmest on record. Davis said he’s still trying to determine the causes of the very unusual winter temperatures.

Natural gas storage a-plenty appears to be headed toward Mississippi in the form of two salt dome cavern projects, both of which are scheduled to come on-line in late 2003. The separate projects sponsored by Bedminster, NJ-based NUI Corp. and Houston-based SGR Holdings LLC, expect to bring a combined 26 Bcf of gas storage to the region.

In what appears to be a split decision for natural gas producers, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld the federal government’s right to include downstream marketing costs when computing royalties owed by individual producers. But, it said producers’ firm transportation demand charges for unused capacity were not subject to the same royalty consideration.

In what at first glance appears to be part of the continuing fallout from the rapid downfall and bankruptcy of Enron Corp., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week amended its rules and forms to require more transparent company disclosures of employee stock option plans (ESOP) and other equity compensation arrangements.

Although the state appears to have all the elements in place to successfully open its electricity markets to competition, the chairman of the Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) continues to harbor serious doubts as to how such a move will accrue to the benefit of the state’s retail customers.

It appears that a comprehensive Senate energy bill may be the latest casualty of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nine Republican members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee have called on Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) to scale back the legislation to focus on those energy measures that enjoy bipartisan support and can be easily passed during this session.