enery prices

Physical gas for Thursday delivery jumped on average 8 cents nationally in Wednesday’s trading, with only a handful of individual points in the loss column surrounded by widespread gains. A large cold front was dropping temperatures well below normal as it moved out of the Plains and Midwest into the Great Lakes and into Texas.

Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner (CFTC) Bart Chilton, a major proponent of speculative position limits, announced that Tuesday’s meeting will be his last at the agency.

Just days after withdrawing its appeal of a federal court decision that tossed a controversial final rule aimed at limiting speculative trading in the swaps markets, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Tuesday voted to propose new rules in place of the discarded position limits rule.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) has asked FERC to initiate a pre-filing review of the expansion of its system in Alabama to provide approximately 1.13 Bcf/d of natural gas to meet growing power generation demand in Florida.

Physical natural gas traded Tuesday for Wednesday delivery fell 4 cents on average as higher prices in the Midwest, Northern Plains and Rockies, along with steady California prices were unable to offset $1-plus declines along the Eastern Seaboard. Futures prices staged a modest rebound as noon weather updates called for a healthy dose of cold temperatures by mid-month. At the close December was higher by 2.1 cents to $3.466 and January had gained 2.7 cents to $3.551. December crude oil dropped $1.25 to $93.37/bbl.

Capacity to move growing production of condensate and natural gasoline out of the Marcellus/Utica Shale region to diluent markets in Canada is being offered by Unity Pipeline Co. LLC, which is proposing a system of new pipeline, as well as pipeline to be converted from natural gas service.

Phillips 66 is planning to expand its midstream business with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) export terminal to be built at its existing marine terminal in Freeport, TX, the Houston-based company said.

George P. Mitchell and crew long have been credited with finding the trigger to unlock unconventional natural gas, but it was in fact a colorful cast of visionaries, oddballs and take-no-prisoner pitchmen who helped launch the United States on the road to energy independence, as told in the insightful, and at times suspenseful, new book by bestselling author Gregory Zuckerman, The Frackers: The Outrageous Inside Story of the New Billionaire Wildcatters.

Within days of a regulatory judge’s recommending a lesser penalty, one of the five members of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) late Monday issued an alternate proposed decision, slapping a $17.25 million fine on Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for “calculated dishonesty” related to a natural gas pipeline safety issue.