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Portland, OR-based NW Natural has accelerated a utility rate decrease for its distribution utility customers in Oregon and Washington, asking regulators in both states to approve rate decreases totaling $39 million. Separately last Friday, CEO Gregg Kantor also reported during a 1Q2012 earnings conference call that the company’s joint venture drilling program with a unit of Encana Corp. and a merchant gas storage project in California passed important milestones during the quarter.

Although its profits fell while production grew, Southwestern Energy Co. said its drilling programs in both the Fayetteville and Marcellus shales remain profitable. But the Houston-based company also plans to divert $50 million in midstream capital toward ventures in the Brown Dense formation and the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. on Tuesday stripped co-founder and CEO Aubrey K. McClendon of his title as chairman of the board and said it would name an “independent, nonexecutive chairman in the near future.”

The number of tropical storms and hurricanes expected to form in the Atlantic Basin this year will be slightly lower than both long-term and short-term historical averages, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

California regulators provided an option to smart meters — both gas and electric — for San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) customers last Thursday, mirroring action take earlier in the year by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) (see Daily GPI, Feb. 2). SCE customers who don’t want an advanced digital meter can keep their current meter or one that was at their location prior to the installation of a wireless smart meter. Similarly, SDG&E customers who do not want a smart gas or electric meter can choose to have the analog meters. SCE said it supported the decision by state regulators and will “respond quickly to customers choosing to opt out.” Separately, one of the state’s two large public sector utilities, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, said it has nearly completed the installation of 600,000 smart meters and an automated electric metering infrastructure.

Given the continued weak outlook for U.S. natural gas, explorers with exposure to high rates of return (ROR) in liquids-focused plays, both in the onshore, as well as the shallow waters of Gulf of Mexico’s Outer Continental Shelf, provide the best upside going forward, according to the energy team at Credit Suisse.

Shale talk and action are both picking up in Illinois as oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) companies and state officials are getting more involved in the fields and in the state capital in Springfield. As the energy companies seek more leases from farmers, the lawmakers have a proposed state law (SB 3280) covering hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Both the cash and futures marched lower Wednesday. The looming question of where the current storage surplus combined with robust production will find a home come October continues to pressure the market. Futures slipped below $2, establishing a new 10-year low. Most markets were off by about a nickel, and Northeast points hovered in the vicinity of unchanged.

Both cash and futures worked their way lower in active trading Tuesday with futures traders almost of the mind that $1-plus futures prices are just around the corner. The physical market saw broad weakness east of the Continental Divide, but cooler weather on the West Coast and additional loads at Northeast points provided notable strong points and quotes finished solidly in the black. At the close of futures trading May had shed 7.6 cents to $2.031 to reach a new set of 10-year low prices and June had dropped 7.1 cents to $2.152. May crude oil tumbled $1.44 to $101.02/bbl.