Cards

Low natural gas prices and increased supplies are reviving the chemical manufacturing industry within the United States as evidenced by the news Wednesday that Dow Chemical Co. is authorizing final engineering and lead-time equipment spending for a new, world-scale propylene production facility in Texas, which will take advantage of increasing supplies of U.S. shale gas as a feedstock.

Natural gas futures support at $4 held up once again on Wednesday, but traders said a $3 handle was likely still in the cards, maybe as early as Thursday morning due to the widely held expectation that the industry will see its first storage injection two weeks earlier than normal.

Natural gas futures support at $4 held up once again on Wednesday, but traders said a $3 handle was likely still in the cards, maybe as early as Thursday morning due to the widely held expectation that the industry will see its first storage injection two weeks earlier than normal.

The cards are stacked against two pending FERC nominees, Phillip D. Moeller and Jon Wellinghoff, receiving swift Senate confirmation this session, according to a top legislative analyst for the natural gas pipeline industry.

A major price rally that hadn’t seemed to be in the cards as the week began occurred Tuesday. Sources could see little reason for both cash and screen numbers shooting higher other than crude oil futures touching the $50/bbl level Monday and again Tuesday, with record daily settlements being established each day.

In a topsy-turvy trading session conspicuous only for its lack of bullish leadership, natural gas futures slipped lower Wednesday amid two waves of long liquidation. An early afternoon rally was about all the buyers could muster, and it was overshadowed by selling at the market’s open and again heading into its close. March finished at $5.785, down 19.2 cents for the session.

FERC was dealing out pipeline certificates like cards at a Black Jack table last Wednesday at its regular agenda meeting. Recipients included the Georgia Strait Crossing pipeline, Northwest Pipeline for a mainline expansion, Southern Natural for its South System II expansion, South Carolina Pipeline for a new line to the Elba Island LNG terminal, Millennium Pipeline (see separate story), two projects designed to serve Long Island (see separate story), and to Northern Natural Gas for compression expansion in Nebraska. Kinder Morgan Texas also won a presidential permit for a border crossing project.

FERC was dealing out pipeline certificates like cards at a Black Jack table on Wednesday at its regular agenda meeting. Recipients included the Georgia Strait Crossing pipeline, Northwest Pipeline for a mainline expansion, Southern Natural for its South System II expansion, South Carolina Pipeline for a new line to the Elba Island LNG terminal, Millennium Pipeline (see separate story) and two projects designed to serve Long Island (see separate story). Kinder Morgan Texas also won a presidential permit for a border crossing project.

There’s no telling what the ultimate fate of PG&E Corp.’s bold move to move major assets out of its state-regulated utility operations as part of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan will be, but major merchant generator/marketers are sitting comfortably with assurances they will recover up to almost $1 billion in unpaid wholesale power bills, regardless of what the bankruptcy judge decides.