Consumers

A 2,800% increase in Pennsylvania’s natural gas production between 2007 and 2016 has dramatically decreased the price all consumers in the state pay for the fuel, according to a study released by the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy.

Michigan’s largest utility company, Consumers Energy, said on Monday that it would spend nearly $440 million this year to continue modernizing its natural gas system with projects to replace aging pipeline and meet growing demand in the state.

Construction of Dow Chemical Co.’s world-scale ethylene production facility in Freeport, TX, is complete. The ethylene unit is in commissioning and expected to enter operation by mid-year, the company said.

Pennsylvania Attorney General (AG) Kathleen Kane has announced a proposed $2.3 million settlement with the retail and wholesale electric generation supplier Pennsylvania Gas & Electric (PaG&E) to resolve consumer complaints that the company deceptively marketed its variable electric rates during the brutal cold of winter 2013-2014.

Natural gas for Thursday delivery rose 6 cents on average nationally on Wednesday as short-term weather forecasts continued to prove unrelenting in their call for unseasonably warm temperatures. Only a handful of points were in the loss column and many points were up a dime or more. Great Lakes locations were up about 4 cents and Midcontinent locations gained a couple of pennies to a little more than a nickel.

As volume targets grow, liquefied natural gas (LNG) developers are urging Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) to resist trying to reserve stockpiles for Canadians by shooting down export projects.

Thursday deliveries of physical natural gas overall fell another 8 cents on average Wednesday as soft power prices and a lack of not only supportive weather, but also a non-existent Atlantic tropical environment, continued to pressure the market. October natural gas options expired Wednesday and at the close of futures trading October had risen 0.1 cent to $3.493 and November had eased 1.3 cents to $3.546. November crude oil slid 47 cents to $102.66/bbl.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has created a natural gas boom in shale plays in the United States that has lowered prices, creating billions of dollars of retail savings for U.S. energy consumers, particularly among low-income households where energy amounts to a larger portion of monthly budgets, according to an analysis by Colorado-based Mercator Energy.

Consumers Energy, one of Michigan’s largest natural gas utilities, has agreed to spend $1 million to create a response fund for natural gas disasters and to help train first responders following two deadly incidents in three years, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Monday.