Floor

Rosetta Resources Inc. will spend about 90% of its 2011 capital budget of $360 million on the liquids-rich window of the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, the Houston-based independent said. Spending will be funded from cash flow and planned asset sales in the Denver-Julesburg Basin and California.

Onshore unconventional natural gas producer Penn Virginia Corp. said Friday it will concentrate its exploration activities in oily and liquids-rich plays in 2011 and will spend 40% less than it did this year because of a “weak natural gas price environment and outlook.”

Natural gas bulls thought they were in the driver’s seat as just prior to the opening of Monday’s floor trading January futures traded as high as $4.547, a stout 13 cent rise relative to Friday’s settlement.

Anyone counting on stricter air emissions rules to drive a gas-fired power generation buildout and put a higher floor under natural gas prices is going to be disappointed — or at least is going to have to wait a while, according to Bentek Energy LLC.

Anyone counting on stricter air emissions rules to drive a gas-fired power generation buildout and put a higher floor under natural gas prices is going to be disappointed — or at least is going to have to wait a while, according to Bentek Energy LLC.

The Senate Energy Committee Thursday approved and sent to the floor the nomination of Cheryl A. LaFleur, a former executive vice president and acting CEO of National Grid USA, to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The committee also approved the renomination of Commissioner Philip D. Moeller for a full term. It may be awhile, however, before they get an okay from the full Senate. Republican Sen. Tom Coburn, OK has put a hold on all Obama nominees. LaFleur, a Democrat, would fill the seat vacated by former Commissioner Suedeen Kelly, who left the agency in late December. LaFleur retired in 2007 from National Grid, which delivers electricity to 3.4 million customers in the Northeast. LaFleur will join Chairman Jon Wellinghoff and Commissioner John Norris in making up a Democratic majority. Moeller and Commissioner Marc Spitzer are Republicans. Moeller has served on the Commission since July 2006, when he assumed the seat of former FERC Chairman Pat Wood. His current term expires June 30.

With its “top hat” oil collection chamber waiting on the sea floor as a standby measure, BP plc on Friday was about to attempt a more promising tactic to siphon some of the oil leaking from its ruptured well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

With its “top hat” oil collection chamber waiting on the sea floor as a standby measure, BP plc on Friday was about to attempt a more promising tactic to siphon some of the oil leaking from its ruptured well 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

The Senate Energy Committee Thursday approved and sent to the floor the nomination of Cheryl A. LaFleur, a former executive vice president and acting CEO of National Grid USA, to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The committee also approved the renomination of Commissioner Philip D. Moeller for a full term.