Blowout

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks answers, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said the blowout of one of its Marcellus Shale wells in northeast Pennsylvania is now under control.

As the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeks answers, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said the blowout of one of its Marcellus Shale wells in northeast Pennsylvania is now under control.

While it continues to deal with the fallout of the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) last April and it reported decreases in both quarterly and annual physical sales of natural gas, BP plc remains firmly atop both NGI’s 4Q2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking and NGI’s Full-Year 2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

While it continues to deal with the fallout of the Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico last April and it reported decreases in both quarterly and annual physical sales of natural gas, BP plc remains firmly atop both NGI’s 4Q2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking and NGI’s Full-Year 2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

While Gulf oil and natural gas activity is lagging, the economic outlook for developers of new technology to quickly identify high-pressure leaks in blowout preventers (BOP) and other outage events looks brighter, executives say.

Over the weekend BP plc began replacing the lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap over the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blowout preventer with a new sealing cap assembly. On Monday COO Doug Suttles said the company expected to install the new cap later in the day.

Energy traders still recovering from the October crude contract’s blowout expiration Monday were treated to a small corrective action Tuesday, while October natural gas futures tested the upper parameters of the recent trading range. November crude dropped $2.76 to close at $106.61/bbl and October natural gas ventured temporarily above $8 before finishing at $7.931, up 27.3 cents from Monday’s close.

Swing prices exploded Monday in hyper-volatile trading featuring across-the-board multi-dollar gains, with Northeast quotes soaring to peaks of more than $30 in some cases and most Gulf Coast/Midcontinent/Midwest numbers averaging between $10 and $20. The spikes weren’t quite as spectacular in the West, but still impressive as the Rockies market soared to $6-8, Malin peaked at more than $10 and El Paso-Permian was quoted as high as $15.95.

A 17% increase in production in the second quarter 2002 wasn’t enough to offset “vertically challenged” Rockies prices for Tom Brown Inc. (TBI), which reported net income of $4.8 million or $0.12 per diluted share as compared to $26.2 million or $0.65 per diluted share during the same period of the prior year.