Breach

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has to sell “at least” $7 billion worth of assets this year to avoid a breach of debt covenants and a credit downgrade, a senior analyst with Moody’s Investors Service said Thursday.

June futures made an initial attempt to rally Tuesday, but market technicians observed that the market failed to breach important resistance areas and prices settled slightly lower. At the close of trading June had eased 0.1 cent to $4.345 and July had shed 0.2 cent to $4.391. July crude oil surged $1.89 to $99.59/bbl.

Although no Northeast locations were able to breach the $10 average level a day earlier, they did so with a vengeance Thursday as further spikes carried them solidly into quadruple-digit territory. As it often is, Transco Zone 6’s New York pool was king of the price hill with the day’s top quote of $15 and top average of $14.31.

March natural gas futures retreated in lackluster trading Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prior to the open of floor trading the March contract did breach the $4.00 level, trading as low as $3.921 in early Globex trading. Traders cited continued worries of a pervasive supply overhang, although others see factors in play working to contract the surplus. At the close March futures had fallen 7.2 cents to $4.006 and the April contract was down 7.5 cents to $4.036. March crude oil dropped 54 cents to $38.94/bbl.

Charging Houston Exploration with corporate waste and breach of its fiduciary duty to shareholders, hedge fund JANA Partners LLC, which owns 10% of the independent producer’s common stock, stepped up the pressure on the company Friday, demanding that it open three years of books and accounting records.

The biggest, oldest block of Canadian natural gas wound up in the hands of a household name in the West — and a major customer — when Cargill Ltd. took over the traditional “aggregator”-managed supply pools of Alberta and British Columbia from Mirant Corp. on Thursday (see Daily GPI, May 2).

Apache Corp. filed a lawsuit last week against Dynegy Midstream Services LP and Versado Gas Processors LLC in the district court of Harris County, TX, claiming that the companies “engaged in bad faith” and broke their contractual obligations to pay for natural gas and natural gas liquids.

Apache Corp. filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against Dynegy Midstream Services LP and Versado Gas Processors LLC in the district court of Harris County, TX, claiming that the companies “engaged in bad faith” and broke their contractual obligations to pay for natural gas and natural gas liquids.

“The breach of trust is deep and wide,” Priory said in a speech to the Economic Club of Detroit. “Business today is suffering from a crisis in confidence. This is no wake up call; it’s a screeching red alert.” Shareholder confidence is at an all-time low, he said.