Instances

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) on Tuesday voluntarily reported to California regulators 180 instances in which parts of its natural gas transmission pipeline system were in violation of requirements related to cathodic protection to help prevent pipe deterioration and leaks.

Following up on President Obama’s mandate earlier this spring, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced a group of environmental, industry and state regulatory experts that will make recommendations to improve the safety and environmental performance of natural gas hydraulic fracturing in shale formations.

Price drops got larger and occurred across the board Thursday after several instances of firmness had remained a day earlier. An ongoing moderation of temperatures in northern market areas combined with a prior-day dip of 9.3 cents by prompt-month futures to further the cash market weakness.

Record keeping and the basis for operating pressures in large natural gas transmission pipelines in some instances are inadequate and more attention is needed nationally; that is one of the lessons that California energy regulatory officials cited Thursday from the fatal September pipeline rupture in San Bruno, CA. They expressed sensitivity to how effective they have been in their oversight role, and predicted implications for regulators and pipelines throughout the nation.

Record keeping and the basis for operating pressures in large natural gas transmission pipelines in some instances are inadequate and more attention is needed nationally; that is one of the lessons that California energy regulatory officials cited Thursday from the fatal September pipeline rupture in San Bruno, CA.

It’s been well established for a long time that prices in the Rockies, which slumped to record lows of 1 cent/Mcf in a few instances in 2007, have been the low market on the North American natural gas price totem pole. But the initiation of service in May 2008 on the western section of Rockies Express (REX-West), with its major addition of takeaway capacity for Rockies supplies through Audrain County, MO, eventually proved to be a major boon for Rockies numbers, and the addition of REX-East transport to the Lebanon Hub in Ohio near the end of June this year has further served to compress basis to other regions.

It’s been well established for a long time that prices in the Rockies, which slumped to record lows of 1 cent/Mcf in a few instances in 2007, have been the low market on the North American natural gas price totem pole. But the initiation of service in May 2008 on the western section of Rockies Express (REX-West), with its major addition of takeaway capacity for Rockies supplies through Audrain County, MO, eventually proved to be a major boon for Rockies numbers, and the addition of REX-East transport to the Lebanon Hub in Ohio near the end of June this year has further served to compress basis to other regions.

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has introduced legislation giving the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) broad authority to regulate futures transactions involving energy commodities and to regulate credit default swaps, and bolstering the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to issue cease-and-desist orders and to authorize retroactive refunds for natural gas shippers.

Several moderate gains in the Rockies and a few other instances of flat quotes prevented an across the board run of price softness Thursday, but it was clear that the cash market was weakening as a large majority of it recorded falling numbers. Power generation buying for cooling load is dwindling across the southern U.S., and heating load in northern market areas is fairly minimal and largely confined to overnight low-temperature periods.