The election may have left the balance of power in Washington basically unchanged, but the lame duck Congress, which convened this week, may turn out to be not so lame, and the outlook for natural gas interests on Capitol Hill is good, according to Regina Hopper, CEO of America’s Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA).
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Midwest, Rockies Post Stout Cash Gains; Futures Flounder Post-Sandy
With markets still a little off kilter after Hurricane Sandy left a path of destruction Monday, natural gas cash quotes averaged 4 cents higher Tuesday for Wednesday delivery with double-digit gains at Midwest and Rockies points offsetting flat Gulf quotes and a number of declines in the Northeast. At the close of trading December futures had slipped 11.2 cents to $3.691 and January was 10.8 cents lower at $3.824. December crude oil was 14 cents higher at $85.68/bbl.
Canadian LNG Export Favored Over Oil Plans
Canadian projects to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) are leading charmed lives by being left out of escalating conflicts over pipelines and tanker terminals planned for the Pacific Coast.
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Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC) Commissioner Barry Smitherman was unanimously elected RRC chairman. He replaces former Chair Elizabeth Ames Jones, who left the commission to devote more time to her campaign for Texas Senate (see Daily GPI, Feb. 15). Her seat on the three-member RRC has yet to be filled. Smitherman was appointed to the RRC in July 2011. Previously he sat on the Public Utility Commission of Texas, where in 2007 he became chairman. Smitherman currently serves as Texas’ representative on the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, as vice chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ gas committee. He is on the visiting committee of the Bureau of Economic Geology with the Jackson School of Geosciences at The University of Texas at Austin, The University of Texas School of Law Center for Global Energy, International Arbitration, and Environmental Law, and the Eanes Education Foundation advisory board.
Interior to Call for Disclosure of Frack Chemicals on Public Lands
The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would require companies drilling on public lands to disclose the chemicals used in their hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations, according to a draft of proposed BLM regulations acquired by NGI’s Shale Daily.
Alberta Fluid Spill Spooks Authorities
A fountain of gas and oilfield fluid that left a dark streak on a central Alberta snowbank has prompted provincial authorities to warn industry against staining its record with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technology imported from the United States.
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E. Russell (Rusty) Braziel, a 30-year energy industry veteran, has left Bentek Energy to launch an energy industry networking and consulting business based in Houston. RBN Energy, which stands for Rusty Braziel’s Network, looks to gather people with complementary skills and needs within the industry to take advantage of advances in social networks that have been advanced by Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter and others, but with the added advantage of being a managed platform that continuously monitors the latest developments in energy markets, and uses that information to “get the right people” together. “Energy markets are big, complicated and can be daunting,” Braziel noted on RBN’s website www.rbnenergy.com. “Today these markets are going through some of the biggest changes in decades. Shale and tight sands technologies first hit the natural gas business, resulting in huge supply surpluses over the past three years. As we enter 2012, natural gas liquids and crude oil markets are experiencing the same phenomenon.” Braziel joined Bentek in 2005 as vice president of sales and marketing and was one of the company’s owners until its acquisition by Platts in January 2011. Braziel spent 20 years with Chevron Corp. predecessor company Texaco as vice president of natural gas marketing and trading and manager of natural gas liquids supply. Subsequently he was vice president of business development for Williams. Braziel also founded Altra Energy Technologies, a developer of energy transaction management software and electronic trading systems, including the Chalkboard Trading System (now IntercontinentalExchange).
Clock Running Out On Pennsylvania Impact Fee Debate
With only a few days left before the Pennsylvania General Assembly recesses for the year, some groups are calling on lawmakers to pass an impact fee on Marcellus Shale development now, while others are criticizing the bills currently on the table.
AGA: Chemical Firms Betting Billions on Cracking Plants
The United States is seeing a resurgence in ethylene cracking facilities as chemical companies, which left the country a decade ago because of high natural gas feedstock prices, are returning to build new plants and reopen mothballed facilities due to lower gas prices brought on by the boom in shale production, said the head of the American Gas Association (AGA) Friday.
North Dakota Sets Production Records; Wary of Fracking Rules
In mid-October North Dakota likely exceeded last year’s record-setting oil and gas production, according to state and industry officials who were quoted in a pre-Thanksgiving report out of Bismarck, ND, by the Associated Press. Separately, other local news reports Sunday depicted state officials as worried about proposed federal rules for hydraulic fracturing (fracking), but they told NGI’s Shale Daily the reports were exaggerated.