Grab

Overall physical prices rose 9 cents Wednesday, but the Northeast continued to grab the spotlight as pipeline maintenance, forecasts of hot temperatures and nuclear outages all combined to send some next-day gas prices higher by more than a dollar. Eastern points were mixed. At the close of futures trading July had eased 2.8 cents to $2.517 and August had slipped 1.9 cents to $2.555. July crude oil tumbled $2.23 to $81.80/bbl.

If the natural gas industry can grab even 10% of the transportation fuel and electric generation sectors markets as an outlet for burgeoning production coming out of shale plays, it could be on the verge of a golden era, according to Range Resources Corp. CEO John Pinkerton.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., long one of the most active natural gas drillers and producers in North America, is stealthily making a land grab to secure domestic oilfields, part of a long-range plan to rebalance a portfolio that now is 93% weighted to gas, CEO Aubrey McClendon said last week.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., long one of the most active natural gas drillers and producers in North America, is stealthily making a land grab to secure domestic oilfields, part of a long-range plan to rebalance a portfolio that now is 93% weighted to gas, CEO Aubrey McClendon said Thursday.

Chesapeake Energy Corp., long one of the most active natural gas drillers and producers in North America, is stealthily making a land grab to secure domestic oilfields, part of a long-range plan to rebalance a portfolio that now is 93% weighted to gas, CEO Aubrey McClendon said Thursday.

Miller Petroleum Inc., which does business as Miller Energy Resources, continued its 2009 oil and gas asset grab on Tuesday, announcing that it has entered into an agreement to purchase the south-central Alaska assets of Cook Inlet Energy LLC for $875,000.

“The land grab of 2008 is over” in many of the major natural gas shale formations across the United States, said an energy analyst with New York-based Jeffries & Co. Inc. last week.

“The land grab of 2008 is over” in the major shale formations, including the natural gas-rich Barnett, Fayetteville and Marcellus plays, says an energy analyst with Jeffries & Company Inc.

BP plc’s land grab in the Arkoma Basin’s Woodford Shale last month is the first of several North American natural gas prospects likely to be pursued, the London-based major’s exploration chief said last week.