Holders

In a challenge that could have repercussions in small towns across Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale, Range Resources on Tuesday filed an appeal of South Fayette Township’s ban on drilling in conservation areas and all residential zones, including suburban communities and rural farmland.

Prices increased by generally small amounts at nearly all locations Tuesday outside the Northeast. As a Midcontinent producer had suggested a day earlier, storage holders under no requirements of an account-emptying deadline likely were continuing to replace gas that had gotten withdrawn during the previous two weeks. And albeit minuscule, cash had a tad of support from Monday’s futures rally of 1.5 cents.

December natural gas futures scored big gains Wednesday as traders expected continued cold weather and holders of short positions were forced to minimize losses. December futures rose 22.7 cents to $6.743 and January added 21.1 cents to $6.813. December crude oil fell 77 cents to $53.62.

Shell confirmed last week that it reached a preliminary agreement with the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to add price thresholds and pay royalties on oil and natural gas production stemming from the flawed 1998 and 1999 Gulf of Mexico deepwater leases when the price ceilings are exceeded.

Shell confirmed that it has reached a preliminary agreement with the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) to add price thresholds and pay royalties on oil and natural gas production stemming from the flawed 1998 and 1999 Gulf of Mexico deepwater leases when the price ceilings are exceeded.

Royal Dutch Shell agreed Tuesday to pay $90 million to settle a U.S. lawsuit brought last year by pension holders following the company’s writedown for overbooking oil and natural gas reserves over a five-year period (see Daily GPI, May 25, 2004).

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday issued a final rule that expressly prohibits companies holding natural gas blanket marketing certificates or electric market-based rate authority from engaging in actions that “are intended or foreseeably could manipulate” energy prices and markets.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday issued a final rule that expressly prohibits companies holding natural gas blanket marketing certificates or electric market-based rate authority from engaging in actions that “are intended or foreseeably could manipulate” energy prices and markets.

Wall Street did not appear to be fazed Thursday by the class-action lawsuit spearheaded by Oscar S. Wyatt Jr., one of the largest holders of El Paso Corp. stock, that accused the giant energy company and its top officials of participating in fraudulent “schemes and a pattern of conduct” to make El Paso “appear on paper far more successful than it actually was.”