Indication

Apache Corp., which now claims to be the second biggest North American onshore operator, reported a 45% increase in total liquids output year/year in the United States and Canada, driven by a revamped drilling program in the legacy Permian and Anadarko basins.

Royal Dutch Shell plc has given no indication that it might back out of plans to build a world-scale petrochemical complex in Pennsylvania, but a developer working on a smaller project in the Northeast thinks bigger isn’t always better.

Royal Dutch Shell plc hasn’t given any indication that it will back out of plans to build a world-scale petrochemical complex in Pennsylvania, but a developer working on a smaller project in the Northeast thinks bigger isn’t always better.

A FERC official Tuesday declined to give an indication of when the agency would act on the proposed Sabine Pass Liquefaction LLC liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities.

February natural gas reacted to a weakening weather outlook and retreated under $3 again Tuesday. There remains little indication that the storage surplus will stop widening anytime soon, and traders look for continuing weakness. At the close February had fallen 7.0 cents to $2.941 and March had given up 8.0 cents to $2.970. February crude oil rose 93 cents to $102.24/bbl.

As a further indication of the private equity sector’s growing interest in energy infrastructure, First Reserve Corp. and the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) have partnered to acquire natural gas-fired generation plants and transmission lines from ArcLight Capital Partners.

In an indication of the current lovefest between California’s Democratic-controlled state legislature and its Republican governor, free-market advocate Rachelle Chong’s confirmation to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) was unanimously approved by the state Senate Thursday, less than 24 hours after the Rules Committee put aside reservations and sent the issue to the full Senate. Without the move, Chong would have been forced to step down from the powerful agency.

Last week served as a good indication of just how much gas-fired power generation has been added to the nation’s grid over the last five years and will serve as a key marker of summer gas usage going forward. For an unprecedented second week this summer, record gas demand from power generation forced a net drop in storage during a period when historically there were significant net injections.

El Paso Corp. Production Company President Lisa Stewart said Thursday she has seen “no indication that we’ve got to shut-in production anywhere,” despite lower natural gas prices. El Paso’s $5.50/MMBtu “plan price” for natural gas provides “sustainability through the cycles,” she told investors and analysts at the Wachovia Securities Equity Conference.