Changed

The times have changed in energy marketing and trading, and in the business world at large — and that, in a nutshell, is why David Messer, the head of RBS Sempra Commodities, decided to pack it in this week for family breakfasts and deep sea fishing, according to Sempra Energy CEO Donald Felsinger.

Natural gas shale has forever changed the energy market in North America, and the amount producers are able to pull from the rock eventually will create a practical alternative to other forms of energy, including crude oil and coal, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said last Wednesday.

Natural gas shale has forever changed the energy market in North America, and the amount producers are able to pull from the rock eventually will create a practical alternative to other forms of energy, including crude oil and coal, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEO Aubrey McClendon said Wednesday.

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has scrapped plans to build a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal off the Southern California coast because of “changed energy market conditions.”

Australia’s Woodside Petroleum has scrapped plans to build a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal off the Southern California coast because of “changed energy market conditions.”

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal has changed course and put his support behind a federal plan to manage oil and natural gas development on the Pinedale Anticline, which allows, among other things, up to 4,000 new wells to be drilled.

Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal has changed course and put his support behind a federal plan to manage oil and natural gas development on the Pinedale Anticline, which allows, among other things, up to 4,000 new wells to be drilled.

Northern Natural Gas, operator of the Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), said construction delays have changed its tentative schedule for restoring service on MOPS following a June 12 shutdown (see Daily GPI, July 20). Nine platforms are now scheduled to be reactivated during the gas days of Friday and Saturday for pressure testing of the system and bringing the mainline back to normal operating pressure. A pig launching from the Mustang 758 platform is set for Monday of next week to clear accumulated liquids. Nominations will be accepted for Monday’s gas day for the nine platforms that were activated to facilitate the pigging activity. The pig is expected to be received at the Tivoli (TX) Plant on or before Aug. 3, where the plant is expected to take a minimum of three days to process the liquids. All platform production will be shut in during the liquids processing. Once they have been processed, the MOPS system will return to normal operations. Currently that is expected to happen Aug. 7, Northern Natural said.

For the longest time it seemed that natural gas prices hovered around $2-3 with a spike here and there. Now the range is $5-10. Oh, how times have changed. Speakers at GasMart 2007 in Chicago last week remembered the old days, briefly, while they advised attendees on how to deal with the new era of prices.