Declining

Natural gas pipeline constraints, high international prices and declining production in eastern Canada could all combine to create sometimes volatile New England gas and power prices this winter, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Idaho regulators last Friday asked for stakeholder and general public comments on a long-term planning document by Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities that forecasts 20 years of low gas prices and demand by its retail residential and business natural gas customers in the northern panhandle of the state.

Despite some fall-off, Houston-based CARBO Ceramics Inc. Thursday said it continues to see strong ceramic proppant sales volumes in the active major shale plays such as the Eagle Ford, Permian and Bakken.

The unconventional oil and gas rig count sagged in the week ending Aug. 17, with numbers flat or declining in 10 of the nation’s 13 unconventional plays compared with the week before, but the liquids-rich Niobrara-Denver Julesburg (DJ) Basin continues to soar, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

Encana Corp. on Wednesday reported a net loss of $1.5 billion in 2Q2012 after recording one-time impairments on declining 12-month average natural gas prices. The Calgary-based producer earned $383 million in the year-ago period.

Natural gas and oil liquids are expected to expand globally, U.S. energy imports will continue declining and a reordering of the fossil fuel mix in North America will prompt a rethinking of domestic energy policy, according to the authors of a study due out later this summer.

As another indicator that declining natural gas liquids (NGL) prices are dragging down some bottom lines in the midstream sector, Enbridge Energy Partners LP said Tuesday it is lowering its full-year earnings projections to the $440-470 million range from earlier guidance of $510-$550 million.

Unconventional natural gas activity supported more than one million jobs in 2010, a number that is likely to grow to nearly 1.5 million by 2015. The industry is expected to generate significant job creation, economic growth and tax revenues nationwide — in producing and non-producing states alike — according to a new report from IHS Global Insight.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee last Tuesday disagreed about the significance of declining oil and gas production on federal lands during a hearing on the department’s proposed 2013 budget.