Horse

Natural gas wells in the booming Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas will use significantly less amounts of water for hydraulic fracturing (fracking) compared to municipalities and farmers in the region, a water expert said.

Natural gas experts say they believe the Marcellus Shale play can be developed in a way that benefits both industry and area residents, but they voiced concern about possible federal regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) that they said could be based on situations unique to Marcellus.

A dark horse in the race for siting a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the U.S. West Coast, NorthernStar Natural Gas, Inc., a U.S.-owned and managed privately held company created specifically to site LNG facilities, announced Monday it has completed a $100 million private offering of convertible notes to qualified institutional buyers.

After a day’s delay for some last-minute horse-trading, California regulators decided Tuesday to spread a $5.7 billion (3-cent/kW) rate increase to both moderate and large energy users to encourage power conservation going into the critical summer peak-demand period. The increase, which was okayed March 27, takes effect June 1 for Pacific Gas and Electric and June 3 for Southern California Edison with five “rate tiers” tied to consumption levels.

In what could be called a dark horse choice following weeks ofspeculation that one of several energy heavyweights would be tappedto fill the Energy Department Cabinet seat for President-electGeorge W. Bush, former Michigan Sen. Spencer Abraham (R) wasnominated to serve as energy secretary yesterday. Abraham wasdefeated last November in his first re-election bid.

Texas Eastern Transmission resurrected an old war horse toprovide additional service to PECO Energy and new service to MobilOil’s Paulsboro, NJ, refinery.