Huge

In a huge transaction Friday, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced it will sell nearly all of its Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Shelf properties through two transactions totaling $1.312 billion. Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. bought an overriding royalty interest for $775 million, while the shallow water properties were sold to Apache Corp. for $537 million.

In a huge transaction Friday, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. announced it will sell nearly all of its Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Shelf properties through two transactions totaling $1.312 billion. Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. bought an overriding royalty interest for $775 million, while the shallow water properties were sold to Apache Corp. for $537 million.

FERC is “quite close to being done” with its investigation of price manipulation in the natural gas industry, according to the director of the Commission’s Office of Market Oversight & Investigations (OMOI). William Hederman told a Houston audience last week that “barring major changes,” the investigation is “wrapping up.”

Potential sponsors who have been working behind the scenes got a huge shot in the arm this week when departing lawmakers slipped an $18 billion loan guarantee and authorizations for a mega-natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to the Lower 48 states into last-minute appropriations and tax measures.

Hurricance Ivan’s continuing impact on Gulf of Mexico infrastructure and production was at least partly to blame for the huge run up in natural gas prices last week. Crude oil futures shot to a record high of $50.47/bbl on Tuesday in response to unrest in Nigeria, the largest African oil-producing country, and that along with expectations of a lengthy supply outage in the Gulf from hurricane damage sent November gas futures soaring to a high of $7.23 on Wednesday.

After three years of 3-D seismic mapping, Mexico’s Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) engineers claim to have discovered several oil and natural gas deposits in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico that could double the country’s total reserves and boost output to rival other world-class producers.

Huge declines of 40 to 50 cents were seen in Friday’s cash market as futures prices finally gave way to significant downward pressure that had been mounting all week, pulling down the cash market with it.

It’s a huge understatement to say that Tuesday’s market was rather featureless. Try virtually non-existent instead, which was to be expected on Christmas Eve.

Monday’s huge surge of cash bullishness came to a near-standstill Tuesday, and several NGI sources indicated they expect a gradual price slide to begin Wednesday. Other than moderate increases in the Northeast, Rockies/Pacific Northwest and California and stronger gains in Western Canada, most points were flat to less than a nickel higher Tuesday (a few scattered small declines also were part of the mix).