Begun

The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) has begun two unique pilot hedging programs for the state’s largest gas and electric utilities as part of an overall plan to lessen the impact of energy price volatility on consumers. The OCC order, announced this week, for the first time involves all the major utilities, and is part of a concerted effort, to find solutions to the impact of high market prices that have hit the state and the rest of the nation for more than a year.

Osprey Energy, headquartered in Bridgewater, NS, has begun an extensive onshore seismic program to locate potential oil and gas deposits north of Truro, NS. Osprey and its joint venture partner will conduct a month-long program over an 80-mile stretch from Debert to Parrsboro, part of the Maritime Basin, with the primary target the 70 kilometers of seismic lines in the Pennsylvanian Parrsboro formation. Early indications are that the region has potential reserves of up to 75 MMbbl and 345 Bcf. The area to be covered includes the Lower Parrsboro formation, which is about 850 meters thick, consisting of sandstone and shale. The Upper Parrsboro is about 1,800 meters thick and is similar to the Lower Parrsboro. The seismic program is gathering 6,000% fold vibroseismic data, which has been contracted to Kinetex Inc. The data will be analysed to create a subsurface geological profile, which will be integrated with surface geological data gathered over several years by the Geological Survey of Canada and the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc., headquartered in Irving, TX, as begun production from one new well drilled at South Timbalier Block 264 in the offshore Gulf of Mexico at a rate of 6.5 MMcf/d and 185 bbl/d. The well, operated by Magnum Hunter, was drilled to a depth of 7,494 feet and logged 80 feet of gross gas pay. Two other wells are in the process of being completed on the newly installed four-slot platform, and additional development is planned later this year, with a second platform also being considered. Production is connected to Magnum Hunter’s 50% owned and operated Block 265 main processing platform, which also processes gas from the company’s 50% owned Block 250. The combined gross production at this facility is now approximately 28 MMcf/d and 500 bbl/d.

Canada’s National Energy Board has begun the public comment period on the environmental aspects of an application by Westcoast Energy Inc. to extend the Grizzly Raw Gas Transmission System and to construct the Weejay Lateral in British Columbia and Alberta. The comment period ends June 27.

Pipeline construction season has officially begun as two natural gas pipeline companies formally announced on Tuesday their new proposed projects for the Southeastern region’s gas needs. As Southern Natural Gas Co. unveiled its intentions to expand its Sonat system for the third time in the last year to supply incremental demand in Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, Duke Energy Gas Transmission (DEGT) launched a month-long open season to determine market interest in a new natural gas supply and transportation option called the Alabama-Georgia Energy System.

The Iowa Utilities Board has begun an emergency investigation tostudy the adequacy of payment options available to natural gascustomers following the record-high energy bills this winter. Theboard is holding a workshop today in Des Moines, and has invitedall regulated natural gas utilities serving the state toparticipate.

Northern Natural Gas continued a System Overrun Limitation forall market areas that had begun Tuesday through at least today.

Frontier market activity is increasing across the board forNorth American natural gas producers who have begun pouring moreresources into deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Canada and theArctic to complement the increasingly stronger plays onshore.Still, bureaucracy is hindering the ramp up for new exploration andproduction that could hinder supplies into the future, warned someenergy experts last week.

Frontier market activity is increasing across the board forNorth American natural gas producers who have begun pouring moreresources into deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic Canada and theArctic to complement the increasingly stronger plays onshore.Still, bureaucracy is hindering the ramp up for new exploration andproduction that could hinder supplies into the future, warned someenergy experts yesterday.