Front

With natural gas now front and center on President Obama’s energy agenda (see Shale Daily, March 31), his administration has called for a broad-based panel to be formed to examine potential risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

While unconventional energy plays require more water than their conventional counterparts, it’s the rapid growth of those new plays that is shining a spotlight on how the oil and gas industries use water, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) professor told attendees at CERAWeek 2011 in Houston last week.

Apache Canada Ltd. and EOG Resources Canada Inc. have awarded engineering, procurement and construction company KBR the front-end engineering and design contract for Kitimat LNG, the natural gas liquefaction and export facility the partners are planning on British Columbia’s west coast. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Building off the December contract’s 12.7-cent gain during its first day in the limelight Thursday, traders pushed the front-month contract through the $4 psychological barrier on Friday to close at $4.038, tacking on another 14.8 cents in the process.

Front-month natural gas futures plunged to a new low for the downtrend Thursday following news that a whopping 93 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending Oct. 15. The late-season build nearly doubled the five-year average injection for the week and more than quadrupled the addition recorded for the similar week last year.

Governor sees a change of attitude among negotiators, based in part on a compromise plan proposed Tuesday.

Learning how to tap successfully into the Marcellus Shale has come at a big cost and a lot of work, and the producer continues to find ways to become more cost efficient, Range Resources Corp. COO Jeff Ventura said Tuesday.

Cash prices had continued to put up a brave front through Monday with modest firmness overall, but the bullish facade could not be maintained Tuesday. Instead, losses that were mostly measured in double digits reigned across the board as more prior-day futures softness, a downgrade of prospects for the season’s first named tropical storm entering the Gulf of Mexico and forecasts of small reductions of cooling load in several regions ganged up on the physical market.

After pushing higher in early Thursday trade, the July natural gas futures contract — in its first regular session action as the front-month contract — reversed course temporarily following news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that 104 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending May 21. However, futures rallied back to record a high of $4.312 before closing the regular session at $4.294, up 11.5 cents from Wednesday’s finish.