Derivatives

The Dow Chemical Co. has begun commissioning an enhanced polyethylene production facility in Freeport, TX, one component of a major buildout to take advantage of abundant shale natural gas in the region.

Making good on their March promise to launch a line of energy futures products by mid-year 2015, Nasdaq announced that its U.S.-based Nasdaq Futures Inc. (NFX) platform went live last Friday with an initial slate of futures and options on oil, natural gas and U.S. power benchmarks, with a fee holiday for the first nine months of trading.

A series of new regulations issued recently by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are aimed at increasing the protections of customers and customer funds held by companies designated by the CFTC as futures commission merchants (FCM) and derivative clearing organizations. They bring to 65 the number of rules, orders and guidances issued by the agency in carrying out the financial reform mandated by the Congress following the financial market’s 2008 collapse and passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Goodrich Petroleum Corp.’s Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS) development is continuing, and the company has high hopes for the play. Meanwhile, it has returned to completing wells in the Haynesville Shale in anticipation of higher natural gas prices.

Forest Oil Corp. continues to step up its activity in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas with the aid of a recently struck joint venture while it expands activity in the Texas Panhandle. East Texas results remain consistent and predictable, and the company is developing a new oil project in the area, said CEO Patrick R. McDonald.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a small agency with the herculean task of regulating the derivatives and futures markets, could face severe budget cuts that would prevent it from implementing many of the reforms proposed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) last Wednesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a small agency with the herculean task of regulating the derivatives and futures markets, could face severe budget cuts that would prevent it from implementing many of the reforms proposed under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, said Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) Wednesday.

San Antonio-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp. is finalizing talks to sell its 25% working interest in the Nordheim Project in the Eagle Ford Shale to an institutional buyer for about $20 million, the company said Monday.

Like many, but not all, producers, Houston-based Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. has shifted to oil because that’s where the profits are.