Concern

Halliburton Co., Baker Hughes Inc. and Weatherford International Ltd. all reported solid quarterly and year-end earnings last week, but there is concern about how quickly Gulf of Mexico (GOM) business will return to normal, management teams said.

Cash traders appeared to have no concern about Tropical Storm Richard possibly surviving an overland passage and emerging into the southern Gulf of Mexico this week. What mattered more to them was a persistent lack of substantive weather-based demand (either heating or cooling); storage inventories poised to hit another all-time high level; and the previous day’s screen plunge. The physical market recorded large double-digit declines across the board Friday.

A group of industrial natural gas consumers fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday expressing their concern that the agency may restrict or possibly prevent the use of “categorical exclusions” to fast-track oil and gas activity on public lands.

A group of industrial natural gas consumers fired off a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar last Wednesday expressing their concern that the agency may restrict or possibly prevent the use of “categorical exclusions” to fast-track oil and gas activity on public lands.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has expressed concern that the Department of Energy (DOE) may be conducting research and development (R&D) in oil and natural gas that the industry itself should be funding, without government help.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has expressed concern that the Department of Energy (DOE) may be conducting research and development (R&D) in oil and natural gas that the industry itself should be funding, without government help.

Despite the concern on Capital Hill over energy prices, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last Wednesday voted out a measure (S. 2229) that places more than 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range out of bounds to future oil and natural gas leasing.

Despite concern on Capital Hill over energy prices, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Wednesday voted out a measure (S. 2229) that places more than 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range out of bounds to future oil and natural gas leasing.

Expressing concern over FERC’s proposed rule requiring interstate and intrastate pipes to post actual flow volumes, producer and intrastate pipeline groups last week called on the agency to limit the scope of the proposal’s posting requirement for intrastate pipelines to only those intrastates that serve major hubs or market centers.