Fresh life is being breathed into a decades-old Canadian visionof a mammoth production and pipeline project to tap Arctic naturalgas reserves. For the first time in nearly a decade, theproduction community, with help from a U.S. producer, is revivingexploration on its formerly most dramatic frontier. A Canadiangovernment auction of drilling rights drew takers for 2,934 squarekilometers (1,132 square miles) of the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Searegion. Initial work is expected to start within a year. TheNorthwest Territories awarded the rights as four nine-year resourcehunting licences, in exchange for C$183 million (US$122 million) inwork commitments by four producers with a penchant for chasing biggas targets.
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Producers Staking Out the Northwest Territories
Fresh life is being breathed into a decades-old Canadian visionof a mammoth production and pipeline project to tap Arctic naturalgas reserves. For the first time in nearly a decade, theproduction community, with help from a U.S. producer, is revivingexploration on its formerly most dramatic frontier. A Canadiangovernment auction of drilling rights drew takers for 2,934 squarekilometres (1,132 square miles) of the Mackenzie Delta-Beaufort Searegion. Initial work is expected to start within a year. TheNorthwest Territories awarded the rights as four nine-year resourcehunting licences, in exchange for C$183 million (US$122 million) inwork commitments by four producers with a penchant for chasing biggas targets.
Futures Rally and Roll on Fresh Fundamentals
After a somewhat subdued trading session Tuesday, natural gasfutures sprang back to life Wednesday in a see-saw battle betweenstorage bears and weather bulls. But, when the dust had settled itwas the bulls who took the day, leading one Houston-based trader tosurmise “weather is always king in natural gas.” The prompt Januarycontract settled up 3.8 cents at $1.99 in the regular tradingsession, before adding an additional 4 cents to finish at $2.03 inlast night’s Access session.
Futures Spring to Life on Weather Forecasts
The futures market gave an early “head fake” — pointing lowerat the open — but support held and the market picked up momentumthroughout the trading session Monday. The December contract spikeddramatically higher near the close, registering a 11.2 cent advanceto $2.387. Despite the large trading range, volume was a little onthe light side with only 50,263 contracts changing hands.
Futures Set Sights on $2.00
The futures market roared back to life on Monday, nearlyrecouping losses registered on Friday by trading 6.7 cents higherto settle at $1.945. Traders continued to cite a strong technicaloutlook coupled with increasingly bullish fundamental factors as areason for the advances.
GISB Gets Three-Year Lease on Life
The sun likely won’t set on the Gas Industry Standards Boarduntil at least the end of 2001. After about an hour of debateThursday, the GISB board of directors voted to extend GISB’s sunsetclause from Dec. 31, 1998 to Dec. 31, 2001. Had the board notextended the clause, GISB would have ceased to exist at year-end.The original resolution called for extending the clause to Dec. 31,2000. Some on the board wanted to do away with the clause. Hadthere been enough support for that, future disbanding of GISB couldresult only from a majority vote by the board. Others wanted thesunset clause not to come up again for four or five years. GISBExecutive Director Rae McQuade said she was happy with the boarddecision.
Retail Gas Competition Shows Some Signs of Life in CA
Retail gas competition is starting to pick up speed inCalifornia despite continued consumer apathy, according to a surveyof the state’s three gas distribution utilities released last week.