Lifted

Tennessee lifted Saturday evening an OFO Action Alert for meters on the 200 Line downstream of Station 249.

Calgary-based Ensign Energy Services Inc. is boosting its services in the U.S. onshore through an agreement to acquire Rowan Cos. Inc.’s land drilling division for US$510 million in cash.

Although it lifted a meter-specific Balancing Alert OFO, Tennessee cited high temperatures across much of its system in saying a systemwide Imbalance Warning would become effective Wednesday. The action requires “all delivery and receipt point operators to match physical flow to scheduled volumes regardless of cumulative imbalance.” Later the pipeline also said that due to anticipated hot weather, it was issuing an OFO Action Alert for market-area Zones 5 and 6 that would take effect Thursday.

Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Friday, setting the tolerance for positive daily imbalances at 10%.

Thanks to colder-than-normal winter weather, which sucked up some excess natural gas supplies, Raymond James & Associates Inc. has lifted 2011 gas price forecasts by 50 cents to $4.25/Mcf.

The shift to shales — and the rise in oil prices — has lifted the domestic rig count close to 20-year highs and shifted the landscape, helped several states join Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana in the chase for natural gas and oil production, according to Headwaters Economics.

Harsh winter weather, as well as routine U.S. nuclear plant maintenance exacerbated by Japan’s plant outages, have lifted U.S. natural gas markets but it’s not expected to last through the year, analysts said last week.

Routine U.S. nuclear plant maintenance, exacerbated by Japan’s plant outages, lifted U.S. natural gas markets in late April and helped to take out an estimated 3 Bcf/d year/year (y/y) of gas supply, but the looser market won’t last long, analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Tuesday.

A solid performance in North America’s onshore during the first three months of 2011 lifted Halliburton Co.’s profits from a year ago, helping to overcome the losses in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and geopolitical turmoil overseas, CEO Dave Lesar said last week.