Crunch

The LDC Forum Rockies & West conference, which concluded Wednesday in Irvine, CA, offered a regional glimpse of the post-global credit crunch energy sector. Panel discussions and keynote talks were as significant for what was not emphasized as for what was.

Regardless of the causes and responses to the global credit crunch, natural gas prices are going to return to double-digit levels during the next 18 months, according to two industry economic experts speaking Tuesday at the LDC Forum Rockies & West Conference in Irvine, CA. The fact the the financial crisis is global in scope ultimately will help pull the world out of it quicker, and energy prices will be quick to rebound, they said.

Reduced cash flows, the credit crunch and the need to remove excess natural gas supply led Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts to reduce their 2009 rig count forecast for the second time in less than two months.

Reduced cash flows, the credit crunch and the need to remove excess natural gas supply led Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts to reduce their 2009 rig count forecast for the second time in less than two months.

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.

The North American gas transmission and distribution (T&D) industry looks healthy for the rest of this year and into 2008, but the credit crunch threatens to slow down capital spending and the acquisition market, according to Moody’s Investors Service.

Power companies should have no problem refinancing maturing debt in the near-term despite the current credit crunch, given the improvement in the sector over the past couple of years, according to a new report issued by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

The oil and natural gas industry faces a huge talent crunch in the next five years, with 50% of the industry workforce eligible to retire coupled with dwindling enrollment in undergraduate petroleum engineering programs. However, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer said that savvy companies should use growing energy information technology to bridge the generation gap and to secure an ample Web-based global workforce.