Different

A pair of liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal proposals on seemingly different trajectories — one ascending, the other trying to break its fall — eye separate hearings in their respective locales of Oregon and Southern California later this month.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) wants to revise five different land use plans (LUP) now in place in the south-central part of Utah to put in place one resource management plan (RMP) for about 554,000 acres of public land surface estate administered by the agency. Under BLM’s preferred alternative, about 48% of the publicly administered land in the Kanab, UT, region would be open for oil and natural gas leasing.

House and Senate leaders have given up on plans for a formal conference this fall to reconcile their vastly different energy bills (HR 6, HR 3221), which were passed earlier this year. Instead the leaders intend to work out the differences informally.

House and Senate leaders have given up on plans for a formal conference this fall to reconcile their vastly different energy bills (HR 6, HR 3221), which were passed earlier this year. Instead the leaders plan to work out the differences informally.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies take different routes in their drive to add value, and their road maps may follow mergers and acquisitions, organic growth, diversification or a simple focus on one region. However, what sets the winners apart is how well they execute their strategies and how quickly they evolve when times change, a John S. Herold equity analyst said Thursday.

After returning to normal linepack levels over the weekend after a lengthy period of dealing with high linepack, Kern River was faced with a different problem Tuesday: low linepack in all four segments that the pipeline attributed to drafting of its system and loss of supply during the preceding 24 hours. “If drafting continues, Kern River will take whatever actions are necessary to ensure the integrity of the system is maintained,” it said.

Historic high energy prices have Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raising different issues for the natural gas and coal sectors, according to previews Thursday of special “CreditWeek” reports scheduled to be released next week. For natural gas, the over-concentration of critical infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico region has been exposed; and for coal, financial and business-risk vulnerability are surfacing despite an 18-month steady run-up in prices, S&P said.

With Hurricane Rita swirling through the Gulf of Mexico as a “strong hurricane” Friday afternoon, natural gas futures seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drummer. October natural gas explored lower during Friday’s regular session, settling at $12.324, down 46.6 cents on the day, but still $1.18 higher than the previous Friday’s close.

With cooling demand starting to wane in parts of the West and North, Friday’s continuation of price hikes at most points were based mostly on two previous days of screen strength, although power generation load remained fairly substantial overall. Reflecting the moderate weakening of weather fundamentals and the drop in industrial demand associated with a weekend, Friday’s upticks were smaller than Thursday’s, and a few Midcontinent and Rockies points were flat.