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Enterprise Products Partners LLC holds a substantial share of the U.S.natural gas liquids (NGL) market, and its intrastate natural gas pipeline system in Texas is stronger than ever. So what’s next? CEO Robert Phillips said last week the master limited partnership (MLP) now has its sights set on the interstate gas pipeline market.

Enterprise Products Partners LLC holds a substantial share of the U.S.natural gas liquids (NGL) market, and its intrastate natural gas pipeline system in Texas is stronger than ever. So what’s the next thing? CEO Robert Phillips said Thursday the master limited partnership (MLP) now has its sights set on the interstate gas pipeline market.

A new contender has stepped forward to help complement the ever dwindling conventional natural gas supplies in the main Canadian producing province of Alberta — coal gasification, on a large scale.

Prepaid gas supply deals are back bigger than ever among municipal utilities and the joint action agencies that structure the transactions on their behalf. With gas prices as high as they are, it pays to pay in advance to get a discount.

Much is said, and often, about how escalating decline rates have cast U.S. gas producers onto an ever-accelerating treadmill. In last week’s “Stat of the Week” from Raymond James & Associates Inc., a trio of analysts pointed at decline rates with alarm and, of course, bullishness. “The treadmill is running too fast,” the analysts said, while conceding that this view is a contrarian one in some quarters.

Much is said, and often, about how escalating decline rates have cast U.S. gas producers onto an ever-accelerating treadmill. In the latest “Stat of the Week” from Raymond James & Associates Inc., a trio of analysts points at decline rates with alarm and, of course, bullishness. “The treadmill is running too fast,” the analysts say, while conceding that this view is a contrarian one in some quarters.

In the largest-ever private equity takeover of a pipeline company, Houston-based transportation giant Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) agreed Monday to be bought by a group of investors led by founder and CEO Richard Kinder for $15 billion plus the assumption of close to $7 billion of debt.

Despite last year’s harrowing hurricane season, W&T Offshore Inc. had its best financial year ever in 2005, reporting a 31.5% increase in net income for the fourth quarter and 26% increase for the year. While production volumes took a hit due to hurricane damage, the company benefited from significantly higher commodity prices.

Amid the political and regulatory euphoria over California’s largest-ever solar incentive program that state regulators approved Thursday are various skeptics questioning the economics of heavily underwriting a technology that is far from being commercially competitive. These concerns caused one of the California Public Utilities Commission members to vote against the massive program that will be paid for by private-sector utility ratepayers.