Driving

Rising ocean water temperatures are driving up the wind speeds of Atlantic Basin hurricanes and are likely to continue to do so for some time, according to a study published this week in the journal Nature.

U.S. natural gas production points toward “supply outrunning demand growth” in 2009 and 2010, driving prices somewhat lower compared with the current forward curve, Barclays Capital energy analysts said in a research report.

North American natural gas demand is projected to increase from 66 Bcf/d in 2006 to 81 Bcf/d in 2015, as an abundance of lower-cost liquefied natural gas (LNG) floods the market driving down prices, according to a recent report by Ziff Energy. A continued expansion of U.S. LNG imports from all parts of the globe could reach the point where “you had better have world peace or you will be bombing your own natural gas suppliers.”

North American natural gas demand is projected to increase from 66 Bcf/d in 2006 to 81 Bcf/d in 2015, as an abundance of lower-cost liquefied natural gas (LNG) floods the market driving down prices, according to a recent report by Ziff Energy. A continued expansion of U.S. LNG imports from all parts of the globe could reach the point where “you had better have world peace or you will be bombing your own natural gas suppliers.”

With natural gas prices uncertain, there was a “remarkable” step change in deepwater demand and price driving last week’s Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 205, according to Raymond James & Associates.

High temperatures only in the teens sent demand soaring in New York City Monday, driving natural gas spot prices to a high of $60 at Transco Zone 6 in New York. The average came quite a bit lower at near $40 and the high wasn’t near its $72/MMBtu record set Jan. 14, 2004 — the average that day was $44.81. Nevertheless, prices at Zone 6 New York were up more than $24/MMBtu from daily spot prices on Friday. Most other Northeast points were up only $3-5 from Friday’s levels.

Gas production from the prolific Barnett Shale in North Texas is driving further expansion of transportation and gas processing assets in the region. Energy Transfer Partners LP of Dallas announced two projects Wednesday: a processing facility in Johnson County, TX, and a 36-inch pipeline expansion connecting the Barnett Shale to the company’s 30-inch Texoma pipeline.

In an offshoot of the court-approved class action litigation settlement over Sempra Energy’s utilities’ alleged driving up of wholesale natural gas prices in the midst of the 2000-2001 energy crisis, the utilities and neighboring Southern California Edison Co. have reached a settlement that calls for changes in the way the Sempra gas storage program is operated. The three utilities jointly filed a motion with the California Public Utilities Commission last Monday to stay a regulatory case examining storage operations.

A group of attorneys general from the Midwest has reviewed the operation of natural gas markets and found “…that a complex spiral of factors has been driving [natural gas] prices to unprecedented and unjustified levels” and “the most troubling aspect of natural gas trading is that policymakers really cannot decipher what goes on….”