Blend

S&P Equity Research, using data from Global Insight, announced Friday it is lowering its 2005 Henry Hub bid week (blend of spot and contract) price projection by $0.16 to $8.19/MMBtu, and 2006’s by $0.06 to $9.47/MMBtu. The group is projecting a December bidweek price of $12.27/MMBtu and a five-month winter average approaching $13/MMBtu. The projections are subject to weather and the return of Gulf of Mexico supplies, analyst Tina Vital, an oil and gas analyst with Standard & Poor’s Equity Research, said. “While warm weather and bearish storage reports have pushed U.S. natural gas prices down to near $11 per million Btu, we believe these declines are temporary. With eastern U.S. winter weather expected to be colder than normal, we expect above-average storage withdrawals and Gulf production losses will boost Henry Hub bid week prices” with a peak price of $12.71/MMBtu in January.

A simultaneous blend of production capacity and capital dollars, tossed together with significant growth in electric generation, created the perfect “aligning of the planets” to finally make a serious go at building a subsea natural gas pipeline from Nova Scotia to the northeast United States, with a possible end point of New York City, said one of the executives involved in the planning.

A simultaneous blend of production capacity and capital dollars, tossed together with significant growth in electric generation, created the perfect “aligning of the planets” to finally make a serious go at building a subsea natural gas pipeline from Nova Scotia to the northeast United States, with a possible end point of New York City, said one of the executives involved in the planning.

Two Louisiana companies announced Friday they’ve cooked up apowerhouse gumbo, a stew that is expected to heat up the wholesalepower market in regional hubs around the country. New Orleans-basedutility giant Entergy and the Baton Rouge-based construction firm,The Shaw Group, are blending their talents to form Entergy-Shaw, astrategic joint venture that is expected to accelerate Entergy’sgoal of becoming a dominant low-cost wholesale power provider inkey regional energy hubs.