Heads

After logging another day of strong gains across the board in the natural gas cash market, industry insiders were scratching their heads in confusion over the firmness, especially in light of bearish fundamentals. While some industry veterans said Tuesday’s strength was likely tied to the 47.1-cent climb in futures on Monday, others saw the mercurial rise in crude futures as having a “trickle down” effect on natural gas futures and cash prices.

The scope, complexity and frequency of major new financial schemes promise to make energy state regulators increasingly scratch their heads and yell for help, a panel of three regulators from the diverse states of California, Missouri and Ohio concluded at the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) annual utilities conference May 31 in New York City. The three regulators said they and their colleagues around the nation are going to have to “raise their game to grapple with a set of issues that are qualitatively different than what they were only a few years ago.”

The scope, complexity and frequency of major new financial schemes promise to make energy state regulators increasingly scratch their heads and yell for help, a panel of three regulators from the diverse states of California, Missouri and Ohio concluded at the Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) annual utilities conference May 31 in New York City. The three regulators said they and their colleagues around the nation are going to have to “raise their game to grapple with a set of issues that are qualitatively different than what they were only a few years ago.”

Stock brokers, money managers and wealthy coupon-clippers cried foul, but cooler heads predicted natural gas industry activity and supplies will emerge as winners from a surprise move to tax income trusts by the Canadian government.

In separate presentations to analysts in New York this week, the heads of energy giants, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. mapped out their companies’ respective plans for future growth in the ever-evolving energy industry.

Chevron Corp.’s Australian unit has signed a “heads of agreement” with Japan’s Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. to deliver 1.5 million metric tons/year of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Gorgon Project beginning in 2011. The parties also are discussing a possible sale of equity interest in the project, which is jointly owned by Chevron (50%), Royal Dutch Shell (25%) and ExxonMobil Corp. (25%).

Sempra Energy’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) unit announced Tuesday it has signed a “heads of agreement” (HOA) with Algeria’s Sonatrach S.A., and is proceeding with “detailed negotiations” to bring Algerian LNG to the U.S. Gulf Coast. Sempra LNG said the negotiations include what it called “additional opportunities to market the gas in the United States.” The deal is nonbinding, the company said.

The heads of FERC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) are due to sign a memorandum of understanding Wednesday in which they will pledge to coordinate requests to companies when seeking information about regulated natural gas and electric transactions, a FERC spokesman said.

Still trying to make heads or tails on what the long-term repercussions from Hurricane Rita will be, November natural gas futures stayed in a fairly tight range Monday before settling at $14.017, up 9.6 cents from Friday.