Locations

Prices fell further at a large majority of locations Friday as it appeared that a tropical storm heading toward Texas would spare most offshore production and heat forecasts weren’t strong enough to avert market softness. Even the lack of a weekend industrial load loss in Friday’s trading was unable to support pricing.

Prospects of greater heat levels returning this week had prices rebounding at a large majority of trading locations Monday. The previous Friday’s rise of 3.6 cents by prompt-month futures and the return of industrial load from its usual weekend decline were additional minor bullish factors.

Eagle Ford Gathering LLC, a joint venture (JV) of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP and Copano Energy LLC, has made a long-term agreement with Williams Partners LP to process Eagle Ford Shale production at Williams Partners’ Markham processing plant in Matagorda County, TX. The JV will construct a seven-mile, 20-inch diameter lateral to connect its previously announced crossover pipeline project to the Markham plant and install 3,400 hp of compression at a cost of about $27 million. The agreement will initially provide Eagle Ford Gathering with 100 MMcf/d of processing capacity at the Markham plant, with an option to increase capacity to up to 200 MMcf/d. “The new agreement augments the previously announced agreement with Formosa Hydrocarbons Co., [see Shale Daily, Feb. 7] resulting in up to 375 MMcf/d of total processing capacity through the crossover project,” said Duane Kokinda, president of Kinder Morgan’s intrastate pipeline group.

Elected officials at all levels of government in Pennsylvania should implement regulations to block gas extraction in “pristine places and locations near where people live or work,” said the PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center. The group said it has documented well sites within two miles of more than 320 daycare facilities, 67 schools and nine hospitals in the state. PennEnvironment also called on lawmakers to strengthen clean water laws, “halt the use of toxic chemicals” in hydraulic fracturing and increase resources available to regulators. In addition, PennEnvironment called on the federal government to “end the special treatment for the gas industry and apply the nation’s core public health and environmental laws to gas extraction, just as it would regulate any potential threat to public health or the environment.”

Several Northeast trading locations, mostly in New England, fell Monday despite freezing-or-less overnight lows forecast to persist into Tuesday. However, the rest of the market recorded substantive increases — nearly all in double digits — due to winter-like cold weather lingering into early spring, April futures strength on the preceding Friday and the return of industrial load from its normal weekend decline also contributed to overall upticks.

Modest softness dominated at a solid majority of locations Friday as outside the Upper Plains and much of the Midwest weekend weather was expected to range from merely cold (a little above freezing) to cool. The relative lack of heating load was reflected in overall pricing.

Although several points clung to flat showings, prices weakened further Thursday as a large number of locations fell, compared to a day earlier when about half the market saw a mild degree of firmness.

In terms of volatility, the cash market came to a near-standstill Wednesday as gains and losses were approximately even and only a few locations ventured more than a nickel in either direction.

Prices increased by generally small amounts at nearly all locations Tuesday outside the Northeast. As a Midcontinent producer had suggested a day earlier, storage holders under no requirements of an account-emptying deadline likely were continuing to replace gas that had gotten withdrawn during the previous two weeks. And albeit minuscule, cash had a tad of support from Monday’s futures rally of 1.5 cents.