Discussion

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) circulated a discussion draft last Tuesday that would require over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products to be centrally cleared and traded on regulated exchanges if they do not receive an exemption from federal regulators overseeing the futures and securities markets.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd (D-CT) circulated a discussion draft Tuesday that would require over-the-counter (OTC) derivative products to be centrally cleared and traded on regulated exchanges if they do not receive exemption from federal regulators overseeing the futures and securities markets.

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN) has released discussion draft legislation that seeks to reform the $580 trillion over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market. It mirrors the draft proposal of the House Financial Services Committee in some respects but departs from it in others.

Democrats on the House Committee on Natural Resources are circulating a discussion draft bill that would almost entirely revamp the way the Department of Interior (DOI) operates, as well as raise onshore royalties for oil and gas by 50%, cut onshore lease terms from 10 years to five, raise minimum onshore bonus rates, eliminate all royalty-in-kind programs and set up planning for the leasing of federal lands on a state-by-state basis.

Democrats on the House Committee on Natural Resources are circulating a discussion draft bill that would almost entirely revamp the way the Department of Interior (DOI) operates, as well as raise onshore royalties by 50%, cut onshore lease terms from 10 years to five, raise minimum onshore bonus rates, eliminate all royalty-in-kind programs and set up planning for the leasing of federal lands on a state-by-state basis.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last Wednesday released a new discussion draft of the electric transmission title of its broad-based energy bill, which would give FERC jurisdiction to site high-voltage transmission (345-kV or more) facilities when a state fails to act within one year from the filing of an application, imposes conditions that would “unreasonably interfere” with a project or denies an application.

House Republicans denounced a “discussion” draft of a continuing resolution (CR) that includes an energy bill (HR 6899) passed last week that would allow drilling as close as 50 miles off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. is underwriting www.Shale.tv, an on-line video channel that will “provide a platform for in-depth information, discussion and analyses about the Barnett Shale and other shale natural gas plays in the U.S.,” according to the website. Despite Chesapeake’s role, the site’s creators “hope to provide thorough, accurate and independent information about the complex issues and opportunities of developing natural gas domestically.” The television-style programming on Shale.tv will be led by managing editor Tracy Rowlett, who was previously a news anchor at KTVT-TV in Dallas. Chesapeake has promised not to meddle in the project, and journalists set to work on the site’s three hours of new programming each day have been promised editorial independence, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal. Last year Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and Chesapeake founded the American Clean Skies Foundation and put former Oklahoma Corporation Commission Chair Denise Bode in charge (see Daily GPI, July 19, 2007). Earlier this year the organization published the first issue of its magazine and unveiled Clean Skies TV, an Internet-based television channel (see Daily GPI, April 11). Earlier this month Chesapeake sold its interests in 90,000 net acres of leasehold and natural gas properties in the Arkoma Basin of the Woodford Shale to BP America Inc. for $1.75 billion, enabling it to redeploy capital to its Barnett, Haynesville and Marcellus shale plays and improve its capital structure (see Daily GPI, July 18).

It’s the price, stupid! At least that seemed to be the underlying theme and tension for a supplier/marketer/end-users discussion of demand-side issues facing gas purchasers at GasMart 2008 in Chicago last Wednesday.