Competition

Heated commodity exchange competition appears to be paying off for New York-based Nymex Holdings Inc. and Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), as the arch rivals both reported record earnings and results for the third quarter of 2006.

Prices were mildly softer for the most part Friday, but rising heat levels in the South and the resultant increase in competition for Gulf Coast supplies had some points trading flat to a little more than 15 cents higher. However, only three of the gains exceeded a couple of pennies.

As competition heats up for LNG terminal sites off Florida and Massachusetts, an AES Corp. affiliate has staked out territory halfway between, with a plan to build a receiving terminal at the old Bethlehem Steel Sparrows Point industrial site on Baltimore Harbor.

A supply-constrained natural gas market, which intensified competition between industrial and power generation consumers, has underpinned the current high gas price environment, but weaker winter demand, repairs to Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and growth in liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports may drop gas prices to $6.50/MMBtu prices by the middle of 2006, according to a report by the Gerdes Group, an energy consulting firm based in Houston.

WSI Corp. is calling for a warmer than normal summer in many regions of the country, which could lead to surging power prices and competition for natural gas supply between electric power generators and gas storage operators. WSI’s forecast for August shows warmer than normal temperatures in all regions except for the Northwest.

WSI Corp. is calling for a warmer than normal summer in many regions of the country, which could lead to surging power prices and competition for natural gas supply between electric power generators and gas storage operators. WSI’s forecast for August shows warmer than normal temperatures in all regions except for the Northwest.

It pays to know the territory, particularly if you’re an oil and gas driller in competition with Kentucky coal miners. NGAS Resources Inc., based in Lexington, KY, made its 20 years of experience in eastern Kentucky pay off in 2004, increasing total production by 77%, revenues by 75% and most importantly, completing an acquisition that helped bump up oil and gas assets by 316% to a value of $68.2 million from $16.4 million in 2003.

It pays to know the territory, particularly if you’re an oil and gas driller in competition with Kentucky coal miners. NGAS Resources Inc., based in Lexington, KY, made its 20 years of experience in eastern Kentucky pay off in 2004, increasing total production by 77%, revenues by 75% and most importantly, completing an acquisition that helped bump up oil and gas assets by 316% to a value of $68.2 million from $16.4 million in 2003.

Even with continued public scrutiny and competition from other projects, the 700 MMcf/d Long Beach LNG receiving terminal, proposed by Mitsubishi Corp. subsidiary Sound Energy Solutions (SES) and ConocoPhillips, is still on track for a joint federal-state draft environmental assessment by spring and a final assessment in September, SES’s COO Tom Giles told NGI late Tuesday.