methane

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has voted to withdraw its appeal of a federal court decision that tossed the agency’s controversial final rule aimed at limiting speculative trading in the swaps markets, clearing the way for a new draft.

Range Resources Corp. doesn’t really know how many wells it may drill from its million acre-plus holdings in the Appalachian Basin. Simple answer, “it’s a lot of wells” that will grow in number for at least 10 or 20 years, COO Ray Walker told analysts Wednesday.

Sustained by low-cost shale gas resources, the North American natural gas industry has embarked on a period of sustained growth, but it will have to address the challenges of a rapidly evolving U.S. energy market for the economy to fully realize its benefits, according to a report issued Wednesday by Black & Veatch.

Noting that the company is operating in a politically charged environment, PG&E Corp. CEO Tony Earley predicted Wednesday that pending multi-billion-dollar natural gas pipeline fines and penalty cases should be decided by state regulators in the first quarter of 2014. If proposed penalties exceeding $2 billion are imposed, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) will appeal in either state or federal courts.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) CEO Stephen Chazen indicated Tuesday that spinning off the company’s estimated $16 billion oil and natural gas operations in California is a likely offshoot of new strategic plans to sell off some domestic and foreign assets to expand existing U.S. holdings.

Water resources company GreenHunter Resources Inc., which serves oil and gas shale producers, said company-wide volume of fluids handled during the third quarter was up 130% compared with a year ago.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) is betting the market will find value in trading a futures contract based upon changes in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly natural gas storage reports.

Physical gas prices for Wednesday delivery fell 6 cents overall in Tuesday’s trading, while traders were busy keeping one eye on a slip-sliding November futures contract as well as weather forecasts calling for unseasonable warmth in eastern energy markets and a weak next-day power market.

A House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee Tuesday will hold a hearing on bipartisan legislation aimed at reforming cross-border energy trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico.