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Gastar Exploration Ltd. is selling its interest in the Culp Draw and Table Mountain areas of the Powder River Basin for $2.4 million in cash from an undisclosed buyer. Gastar, headquartered in Mount Pleasant, MI, owns about 3,033 acres in the leases, and said it would retain a small overriding royalty interest. The sale is expected to close in about 45 days. “Along with the funds from our previously announced Powder River Basin joint venture, this transaction makes additional funds available for our planned activities, including our projects in the Deep Bossier Sands play in East Texas, the deep Trenton-Black River and Devonian Shale plays in West Virginia and our Australian coalbed methane (CBM) plays in New South Wales and Victoria,” said Russell Porter, Gastar’s COO. Gastar’s CBM activities are conducted within Wyoming’s Powder River Basin, and it also owns prospective acreage in East Texas, the Black River play of Appalachia and the East Lost Hills field within the San Joaquin Basin. TransTexas Gas Corp. filed its second Chapter 11 banktruptcy reorganization plan in four years last Friday. The company and its wholly owned subsidiaries, Galveston Bay Processing Corp. and Galveston Bay Pipeline Co., had filed voluntary petitions for relief last November and on May 1 filed their joint plans of reorganization in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, Corpus Christi Division. From April 19, 1999 through March 17, 2000, the company also operated as a debtor-in-possession under Chapter 11 and emerged from bankruptcy on Jan. 31 (see Daily GPI, March 20). TransTexas is engaged in the exploration, production and transmission of natural gas and oil, primarily in South Texas, including the Eagle Bay field in Galveston Bay and the Southwest Bonus field in Wharton County.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) last Wednesday said that he is hopeful that electricity titles included in comprehensive energy bills pending in the House of Representatives and the Senate can be successfully reconciled when conferees from the two chambers meet to iron out differences between the two sweeping legislative proposals.

Northern Natural Gas was able to restore some compression Thursday evening at the Bushton (KS) Compressor Station in areas away from Building 3, which was damaged in an explosion and fire Tuesday morning (see Daily GPI, April 2), a spokesman said Friday. The station began accepting a portion of the normal outlet gas from an upstream Oneok processing plant and possibly would be able to handle full plant volumes again by Friday night, he said.

Major gas and power generators and marketers showed third quarter earnings off more than half from year-ago results, while natural gas distributors registered a smaller seasonal loss for the quarter and earnings for electric utilities were about even with last year, according to Energy Performance Review (EPR).

Bolstered by a return of winter-like weather in northern market areas and parts of the West, along with positive natural gas futures during morning trading, the cash market saw a surge in prices Monday. Although gains went as high as 20-25 cents or so in California and at some Northeast citygates, most were more modest on either side of a dime. San Juan and intra-Alberta numbers generally ranged from flat to less than a nickel higher.

Except for minor softness in the Midcontinent/Midwest and Northeast areas, the East was dominated by flat pricing Thursday. The market tended to be a bit weaker at western points, which ranged from flat to down more than 15 cents (PG&E citygate).

As FERC ramps up its outreach efforts to state regulators, most recently in the areas of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and electricity market design, FERC Commissioner Nora Brownell last Friday said that she believes the federal agency is making progress in forging stronger relationships with its state-level counterparts.

A moderation of recently severe winter weather in several market areas is still on the way, but the cold retained enough grip Tuesday to spur small gains of about a nickel or less at a majority of points. Citygates in the Northeast were joined by Florida deliveries in recording larger advances, while western points were mostly flat to 3-4 cents lower.

As futures prices continue to reside south of $3, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico offshore rig market continues to worsen in terms of both rig utilization and day rates, according to the latest ODS-Petrodata Group Offshore Rig Day Rate Indices. However, even while the Gulf remains in decline, other rig market segments remain strong, the company’s data shows.