Ceased

Even if all drilling rigs were removed from the northern Marcellus Shale region and current drilling ceased, dry gas production in northeastern Pennsylvania would continue growing for 16 months, thanks to a large inventory of nonproducing wells and high initial production (IP) rates, Bentek Energy LLC said in a market note. “In fact, if zero rigs were operating there, production could still grow from approximately 4.1 Bcf/d today to 5.4 Bcf/d by September 2013, a 31% increase that results exclusively from working off the existing backlog of 1,000 nonproducing wells in the region,” the firm said. The assumptions in its analysis are that the 12-month average completion rate is carried forward and the average IP rate in the area is 6,500 Mcf/d. A “typical” Marcellus decline curve is also assumed. Potential pipeline capacity constraints were not included in the analysis.

Due to a leak on Coronado Pipeline, Dominion ceased deliveries to Columbia Gas at Cassity Mountain Wednesday. Dominion said it hopes to resume deliveries by June 30. All producers feeding directly into Coronado must shut in, Dominion said, and all producer compression in bubbles 4202, 4203 and 4205 on its system must be shut in until further notice. However, pool operators should not reduce their nominations during this outage, it added.

Constellation Energy Group has, for the time being, ceased FPL Group merger integration activities, Constellation CEO Mayo Shattuck said in a letter to company employees that was included in a May 31 Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

About 1 Bcf/d of flow on El Paso’s South Mainline downstream ofPecos River (NM) Station ceased after the pipeline exploded earlySaturday, killing 10 people and seriously injuring two others at anearby campsite (see related reports:wrap-up, politics).