Dwindling

Natural gas supplies from Nova Scotia are dwindling, but the province of New Brunswick could join the shale gas renaissance sweeping much of North America, provided its shales can be exploited without harming the environment, New Brunswick Energy and Mines Minister Craig Leonard said Wednesday.

Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead warned his state agencies to prepare for making 8% cuts in their budgets in response to a dwindling revenue stream due to inordinately low natural gas prices. The average expected gas prices since the new budget was calculated in January have plummeted to below $2/MMcf, compared to $3.25/MMcf.

As indicated in Tuesday’s dwindling gains and increased softness, the cash market’s recent bull run was coming to a close. This was borne out in Wednesday trading; several locations, mostly in the Northeast, were flat or higher again, but a majority of points saw generally minor declines.

With the remaining days of Pennsylvania’s 2010 legislative session dwindling, Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday asked leaders of the state’s General Assembly to gather with him and energy industry leaders in Harrisburg Monday to work on a natural gas severance tax bill.

With the remaining days of Pennsylvania’s 2010 legislative session dwindling, Gov. Ed Rendell on Friday asked leaders of the state’s General Assembly to gather with him and energy industry leaders in Harrisburg Monday to work on a natural gas severance tax bill.

With the prospect of higher natural gas prices in the near-term dwindling, junior producer Samson Oil & Gas Ltd. said Friday it will sell most of its domestic gas projects and turn its attention to domestic oil-weighted holdings.

Ignoring cooling load that was dwindling for the weekend in some areas and staying light to moderate at best in several other regions, the cash market relied almost entirely on the previous day’s futures spike in recording gains at a large majority of points Friday. Prices also were essentially unfazed by the drop of industrial demand in a weekend market.

Forecasts indicating dwindling heating load in the Northeast and less cooling load in the western half of the South, abetted by the previous day’s drop of 23.6 cents by June futures, caused cash prices to sink at most points Tuesday. But although transport-constricted San Juan Basin numbers continued to fall, Rockies points recovered some of the major price ground they had yielded Monday.

To encourage shippers to run positive imbalances because of dwindling linepack during an especially severe cold snap in Western Canada, NOVA has reset its imbalance tolerance range to 0/+4.