Doubts

Anyone who doubts the growing importance of onshore unconventional natural gas basins should take a look at second quarter results from EOG Resources Inc. and Southwestern Energy Co. Both companies credit prolific shale production — EOG’s in the Barnett and Southwestern’s in the Fayetteville — for strong results last quarter.

Helped lower by sagging crude oil futures and doubts surrounding just how cold the coming “cold front” will be, March natural gas futures started Tuesday’s session more than 10 cents lower than Monday’s close and continued lower into territory not seen since last summer. The prompt month put in a new front-month low before settling at $7.858, down 13.7 cents from Monday’s finish.

While there will be “a lot of noise” on Capitol Hill in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, energy analyst Christine Tezak doubts there will be “substantive legislation” adopted to change the way domestic energy markets operate.

A top energy analyst believes there’s a 60% chance that Congress will pass an omnibus energy bill this year, although she doubts that lawmakers will meet President Bush’s request for the measure to be delivered to him by Aug. 1 (HR 6).

With no signs yet of an expected cold front on the East Coast and fairly bearish weekly storage predictions, February natural gas futures on Wednesday had no choice but to decline for a second straight regular session.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton had good and bad news for the natural gas industry last Tuesday. She said the department plans to take steps to speed up the permitting process for natural gas producers in the Rocky Mountain region, but she doused any flickering hope that producers might have about being given access to the off-limit regions of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) amid the concerns about gas supply and prices.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton had good and bad news for the natural gas industry Tuesday. She said the department plans to take steps to speed up the permitting process for natural gas producers in the Rocky Mountain region, but she doused any flickering hope that producers might be given access to the off-limit regions of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) amid the concerns about gas supply and prices.

Although it won’t boost its still-sagging credit rating, Nevada Power Co.’s financial push last week drew a positive response for Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) last Wednesday when it labeled as a “positive development” the utility’s new short-term credit facility with Merrill Lynch. It provides additional liquidity this summer for Nevada Power, one of two private-sector electric utilities under Reno, NV-based Sierra Pacific Resources.

A week after expressing doubts about the existing market support for the project, FERC last Wednesday awarded a certificate for the construction of the $497 million Greenbrier Pipeline to serve industrial and residential gas needs in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions, primarily Virginia and North Carolina.