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With the Canaport LNG terminal due to receive its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) within days, Spain’s Repsol YPF is poised to enter the North American gas market with up to 1 Bcf/d of supply delivered “at the end of the pipe” to the hurricane-free Northeast/New England market.

With the Canaport LNG terminal due to receive its first shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) within days, Spain’s Repsol YPF is poised to enter the North American gas market with up to 1 Bcf/d of supply delivered “at the end of the pipe” to the hurricane-free Northeast/New England market.

With the year’s seventh named tropical storm, Hurricane Gustav, forecast to strengthen and possibly enter the southeastern Gulf of Mexico this weekend, WSI Corp. said its forecast for the Atlantic hurricane season remains unchanged, with 15 named storms, including nine hurricanes, four of them intense (Category Three or greater) to form by Nov. 30.

If April-June weather is roughly in line with the National Weather Service (NWS) outlook, U.S. natural gas storage could enter July down about 500 Bcf compared with a year ago, which one analyst said may set up the potential for double-digit gas prices this summer. However, the “giddy gas bulls” are ignoring an expected increase of hydroelectric output, which could displace a lot of West Coast generation, according to another analyst.

If April-June weather is roughly in line with the National Weather Service (NWS) outlook, U.S. natural gas storage may enter July down about 500 Bcf compared to a year ago — setting up the potential for double-digit gas prices this summer, according to one energy analyst.

Enterprise GP Holdings LP last week made good on its intentions to enter the interstate pipeline market after announcing two separate transactions that give it a minority stake in Energy Transfer Equity LP and TEPPCO Partners LP. The transactions, which together are worth an estimated $2.8 billion, are expected to increase Enterprise’s distributable cash flow per unit in 2008 by more than 10%.

Enterprise GP Holdings LP late Monday made good on its intentions to enter the interstate pipeline market after announcing two separate transactions that give it a minority stake in Energy Transfer Equity LP and TEPPCO Partners LP. The transactions, which together are worth an estimated $2.8 billion, are expected to increase Enterprise’s distributable cash flow per unit in 2008 by more than 10%.

The New York Mercantile Exchange’s (Nymex) announcement late Wednesday that it intends to enter the soft agricultural commodity futures markets ruffled more than a few feathers in the trading world, chiefly those of the New York Board of Trade (Nybot), which accused Nymex on Thursday of a “transparent attempt to interfere” with Nybot’s $1 billion-plus merger with IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

With some state regulators reluctant to allow natural gas utilities to enter into long-term contracts for supply, including liquefied natural gas (LNG), a former Department of Energy (DOE) official envisions a scenario potentially developing in which intermediaries — nonregulated entities — step up and assume the risk by purchasing LNG-sourced gas and then selling it to the utilities.