Mature

The shale gas revolution has improved global energy security and has helped a “mature industry be reborn through technology,” ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva said last week in Qatar.

The shale gas revolution has improved global energy security and has helped a “mature industry be reborn through technology,” ConocoPhillips CEO Jim Mulva said this week in Qatar.

Furthering its plans to acquire approximately 3,650 net acres of Marcellus Shale leasehold, Westmont Resources Inc. on Friday said it has signed a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of a 252-acre oil and gas leasehold in Pennsylvania’s southwest tier.

Gas production in the Haynesville and Marcellus shales was the bright production star in February, while output in the traditional, more mature regions fell due to cold weather and maintenance/repairs, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly natural gas report.

A “strong and mature” El Nino — the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean — persisted during January, but it is likely to fade this spring, increasing the chances for an active Atlantic hurricane season this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

A “strong and mature” El Nino — the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean — persisted during January, but it is likely to fade this spring, increasing the chances for an active Atlantic hurricane season this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

A “strong and mature” El Nino — the warming of sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean — persisted during January, but it is likely to fade this spring, increasing the chances for an active Atlantic hurricane season this year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC).

FERC Chairman Patrick Wood III, who has headed the agency since 2001, announced last Wednesday that he will leave the Commission when his term expires on June 30. He’s returning to his home state of Texas, although in a press briefing with reporters Wood didn’t disclose any specific plans for his next career move. Commissioner Joseph Kelliher may be selected by the Bush administration as a likely replacement for Wood, if only temporarily.

Natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico is expected to decline in the short term as old fields begin to mature and become exhausted, but will rebound beginning in 2008, reaching approximately 13.5 Bcf/d at its peak, said Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management.