Credit

The dramatic tightening of money and credit markets, combined with plunging equity markets over the last few weeks, have exposed natural gas, oil and other commodities to “major downside risks,” a Deutsche Bank analyst said Friday.

The dramatic tightening of money and credit markets, combined with plunging equity markets over the last few weeks, have exposed natural gas, oil and other commodities to “major downside risks,” a Deutsche Bank analyst said Friday.

Despite the havoc wreaked by the twin Gulf of Mexico hurricanes and the upheaval in the credit markets, third-quarter oil and natural gas production oupaced year-ago levels and second-quarter activity, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported Friday.

Watching the Wall Street credit meltdown and its aftermath, California regulators last Thursday expanded financing limits on the state’s two largest private-sector utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).

Watching the Wall Street credit meltdown and its aftermath, California regulators Thursday expanded financing limits on the state’s two largest private-sector utilities — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).

Georgia natural gas marketer Catalyst Energy Group and two affiliates have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after losing a required credit line and contracted fuel supply.

While natural gas marketers overall registered an approximate 12% gain in volumes sold in NGI’s 1Q2008 marketer survey over year-ago totals, Constellation Energy Group, now fourth in the marketer listings, and Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP, now in sixth place, reported remarkable sales volume gains of 54% and 68%, respectively. Shell Energy North America, Nexen Inc. and Tenaska Marketing Ventures all reported sales volume increases of more than 20%, while Chesapeake Energy Corp. and XTO Energy Inc. both had sales that were up by 32% over 1Q2007.

While natural gas marketers overall registered an approximate 12% gain in volumes sold in NGI’s 1Q2008 marketer survey over year-ago totals, Constellation Energy Group, now fourth in the marketer listings, and Louis Dreyfus Energy Services LP, now in sixth place, reported remarkable sales volume gains of 54% and 68%, respectively. Shell Energy North America, Nexen Inc. and Tenaska Marketing Ventures all reported sales volume increases of more than 20%, while Chesapeake Energy Corp. and XTO Energy Inc. both had sales that were up by 32% over 1Q2007.

Upstream master limited partnerships (MLP) have suffered from the credit crisis along with all high-yield securities, but the distributions from companies in this sector are backed by “solid” oil and natural gas production and cash flows, which will only increase over time, said energy analysts in a note to clients.