Entrenched

The North American shale revolution “is now deeply entrenched,” and is expected to keep natural gas prices at “historically low prices for some time,” creating both long-term benefits and hardships for a variety of sectors and companies, according to a report issued by Moody’s Investor Services on Monday.

The North American shale revolution “is now deeply entrenched,” and is expected to keep natural gas prices at “historically low prices for some time,” creating both long-term benefits and hardships for a variety of sectors and companies, according to a report issued by Moody’s Investor Services on Monday.

With a major pre-summer heat wave solidly entrenched from the South through the Midwest and threatening to spread into the Northeast — not to mention traders eyeing the prospects of a Caribbean low-pressure area that could become a tropical depression as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — prices rose at nearly all points Monday.

Citing deep philosophical differences with two increasingly entrenched colleagues, the newest California utility regulator, Susan Kennedy, indicated this week the current 3-2 split will continue among the five members of the California Public Utilities Commission. “And that is not necessarily bad if we’re consistent,” Kennedy said during a wide-ranging interview in her San Francisco office.

Besieged by a deteriorating fundamental picture in a market that is already firmly entrenched in a downtrend, natural gas futures traders pressured prices to new lows yesterday, amid a seemingly relentless barrage of selling activity. Even the season’s first triple-digit storage withdrawal (124 Bcf) failed to induce much of any buying sympathy, giving traders little choice but to continue to short the market. The February contract closed 19.7 cents lower at $2.268 and in doing so broke its previous all-time low at $2.415 notched back in February 1999.

The gas bulls are firmly entrenched at the St. Petersburg, FLoffices of Raymond James & Associates. The group put out areport last week projecting either the loss of 5 Bcf/d of gasdemand this winter due to soaring gas prices or an “impossible”negative balance of working gas in storage at the end of the winterheating season, given normal temperatures this winter.

The gas bulls are firmly entrenched at the St. Petersburg, FLoffices of Raymond James & Associates. The group put out areport this week projecting either the loss of 5 Bcf/d of gasdemand this winter due to soaring gas prices or an “impossible”negative balance of working gas in storage at the end of the winterheating season, given normal temperatures this winter.

The technology and economics are in line for commercialexpansion of distributed power, but progress is threatened byentrenched utilities, according to distributed power sponsors.