Faster

National Fuel Gas Co.’s exploration and production (E&P) business is another of many that have been running faster and making less. While production was up in the most recent quarter, earnings were down due to lower commodity prices.

National Fuel Gas Co.’s exploration and production (E&P) business is just another of many that have been running faster and making less. While production was up in the most recent quarter, earnings were down due to lower commodity prices.

Rocky Mountain natural gas production is at a crawl and the economy isn’t moving any faster, but El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline Project is on track to begin service in 2011, executives said last week.

Rocky Mountain natural gas production is at a crawl and the economy isn’t moving any faster, but El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline Project is on track to begin service in 2011, an executive said Monday.

U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies are laying down natural gas rigs at a faster clip than in previous down cycles, and the gas rig count is on pace to fall by almost two-thirds from last year, energy analysts said last week. Still, some analysts and producers fear that dropping rigs won’t be enough to balance the oversupplied gas market by the end of 2009.

Tight credit markets and economy-driven demand destruction have forced U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies to lay down natural gas rigs at a faster clip than in previous down cycles, and the gas rig count may drop 65% from last year, energy analysts said Monday. Even cutting rigs by more than half, however, may not be enough to balance the oversupplied gas market by the end of the year.

Tennessee indicated that repairs to correct problems caused by liquids entering Station 823 may be proceeding faster than expected. Barring any unexpected issues, Tennessee said Friday, it anticipated that the work would be complete in two to three days; on Wednesday it had estimated “five to 10 days” (see Daily GPI, April 19). As a result, the pipeline saw a good chance of restrictions through Station 823 being lifted by the end of the weekend. Tennessee said that as an alternative, it had analyzed the possibility of activating the Seahawk meter. “However, after further investigation, Tennessee has determined that opening the Seahawk meter is not a viable option due to a lack of flow control in the area. Without flow control, the possibility of free flowing liquids into Tennessee’s system at Grand Chenier and Kinder is too great a risk.” In an effort to assist customers in moving their gas off the Tennessee system, it was offering discounts at six meters and said “any other mutually agreeable meters upstream of Station 823” could be used.

On one side, Gulf of Mexico shut-ins are returning faster than expected, and imports of Canadian gas have increased; on the other the colder weather has arrived and LNG is going to Europe instead of the United States. These are the factors in play and behind the current high natural gas prices, FERC staff told the commissioners in a natural gas market update at Thursday’s regular meeting.

Natural gas usage worldwide will climb faster than any other energy source over the next 23 years, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook. Natural gas consumption is projected to increase 2.3% per year, or a total of 69%, through 2025 to 156 Tcf from 92 Tcf in 2002.