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As long as the natural gas futures prices are “north of $5.50/Mcf on the strip,” Petrohawk Energy Corp. doesn’t plan to defer development in two big onshore plays, the Haynesville and the Eagle Ford shales, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.

Energy guru Tom Petrie agrees with many of his peers that 2009 doesn’t appear to hold much promise for the U.S. natural gas sector. Gas prices could fall to half of where they are now if certain events coincide this summer, but he still thinks there’s a bit of blue amid the darkening clouds.

Energy guru Tom Petrie agrees with many of his peers that 2009 doesn’t appear to hold much promise for the U.S. natural gas sector. Gas prices, he said, could fall to the $2 area if certain events coincide this summer, but he still thinks there’s a bit of blue amid the darkening clouds.

“Storm hype” just doesn’t seem to have the old price punch it used to. For the second week in a row the industry is seeing prices get substantially softer even as a hurricane heads into the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production area. To be sure, the fact that the projected track of Hurricane Ike had been shifted more to the south — and thus farther from offshore infrastructure — was a major factor in prices dropping across the board Tuesday.

Oil and natural gas producers scored a major victory last Thursday when the House defeated a Democratic measure that would have forced them to either use their existing leases or lose them. The House did pass two energy bills before leaving for the week-long Fourth of July recess, one which requires the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to be more aggressive in its oversight of energy futures markets and another that would provide mass transit agencies with new funds to deal with skyrocketing gasoline and fuel prices.

Cheniere Energy has received authorization for commissioning activities at its new Sabine Pass LNG terminal and to put its Sabine Pass pipeline segment into service in advance of the rest of the new Creole Trail line as part of the commissioning activities. Several LNG cargoes are expected to be delivered into the Sabine Pass terminal from Nigeria in late March or early April.

A merger of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “doesn’t make sense” and would be ill-advised, said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton last Tuesday.

A merger of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “doesn’t make sense” and would be ill-advised, said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton Tuesday.

Consumers scream when their gas bills spike, and the typical utility response is to say that commodity costs are just a pass-through; the utility doesn’t make any money on the gas it delivers. True, but…