Forecast

Given current winter price projections and a weather forecast similar to last year, residential customers of Charlotte, NC-based Piedmont Natural Gas may see a drop of 10-15% in their total winter heating bills between November and March, the utility said Monday.

Houston-based Marathon Oil Corp. reported it sold about 350,000 boe/d of oil and natural gas in 3Q2006, in line with a previous forecast to sell between 340,000-360,000 boe/d. Net natural gas sales totaled 530 MMcf/d, sequentially higher than the 523 MMcf/d reported in 2Q2006, but lower than the 562 MMcf/d reported for the same period a year ago.

Canadian natural gas drilling is forecast to heat up again in the coming winter field work season as producers and contractors alike anticipate the next surge in prices and vow to be ready to take advantage of it with increased productive capacity.

With the Florida forecast calling for peak temperatures in the mid 90s, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day for customers in its market area Monday.

Citing a forecast of warmer weather in central Florida and lower linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day for customers in its market area Friday. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was set at 20%.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are forecast to be about one-fifth of the U.S. gas supply by 2025, but North American markets will face several domestic and global challenges going forward, industry experts said Monday. Among other things, U.S. buyers will have to compete a lot more for nearby Atlantic Basin supplies, and will find access issues a continuing challenge.

Although cold fronts or snow were in the Friday forecast for sections of all four main geographic regions of the U.S., the fact that unseasonably moderate conditions had returned to the overall weather picture carried the trading day Thursday and resulted in diving prices across the board. The screen’s prior-day plunge of nearly half a dollar and increasing comfort levels about storage put further downward pressure on cash quotes.

Saying its linepack was low and cold weather was in the Florida forecast for Thursday night and Friday morning, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice for market-area customers Thursday with 20% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

In the report on the ExxonMobil global energy forecast in Daily GPI’s, Dec. 14 edition, inaccurate figures were reported in the second paragraph: World natural gas use is projected to increase from about 290 Bcf/d today to nearly 440 Bcf/d by 2030.