Dramatically

Citing “dramatically decreasing temperatures,” Northern Natural Gas declared a System Overrun Limitation for all market-area zones starting Tuesday.

PNM Resources and a subsidiary of Continental Energy Systems last week announced a swap that would dramatically build Continental’s natural gas operations and allow PNM to give full attention to its electric utilities in New Mexico and Texas.

PNM Resources and a subsidiary of Continental Energy Systems announced a swap Tuesday that would dramatically build Continental’s natural gas operations and allow PNM to give full attention to its electric utilities in New Mexico and Texas.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact cause — wellhead freeze-offs or insufficient data — U.S. natural gas production has dropped dramatically, to post-Katrina levels, at a time when cold weather across the country has driven demand to a peak 40% above the average, Denver-based consulting firm Bentek Energy reported Friday. The company — one of only a few firms that is collecting gas pipeline flow data nationwide — said data show a 5.3% decline in domestic production occurred over a one-week period between Jan. 10 and Jan. 17.

While it’s difficult to pinpoint the exact cause — wellhead freeze-offs or insufficient data — U.S. natural gas production has dropped dramatically, to post-Katrina levels, at a time when cold weather across the country has driven demand to a peak 40% above the average, Denver-based consulting firm Bentek Energy reported Friday.

Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp. on Tuesday reported fiscal 2006 earnings climbed dramatically on the back of its nonutility operations, which contributed more than half of the year’s profit.

The “extraordinary” surge in 3Q2005 natural gas prices — up 63% over a year ago — dramatically impacted margin calls for energy merchants and producers hedging their production; however, most companies either maintained or were able to secure enough of a cushion to withstand the higher prices, according to a report by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

As a result of market-area temperatures changing dramatically “with significantly below normal temperatures expected for the next several days,” Transco ended Thursday an Imbalance OFO that had been implemented Tuesday (see Daily GPI, Nov. 15).

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports may not be the final solution to the nation’s gas supply problem, but LNG imports are expected to grow dramatically over the next decade — at least 7% per year through 2015 as long as there is enough pipeline and storage infrastructure built to support the growth, industry experts said at an LNG conference in Houston on Wednesday.