Minimal

In its latest Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) nudged down is Henry Hub natural gas price forecast for this year and next and predicted that coal-fired power plants will retain their recent gains over gas-fueled facilities. The gas production outlook held steady with last month’s STEO.

Exporting liquefied U.S. gas could create tens of thousands of jobs but would have “only minimal impacts” on the prices U.S. consumers and industry pay for gas supply, according to a new report prepared by ICF International for the American Petroleum Institute (API). It’s the latest word, of many, in the ongoing discussion about whether exporting some of America’s gas bounty is prudence or folly (see related story).

Exporting liquefied U.S. gas could create tens of thousands of jobs but would have “only minimal impacts” on the prices U.S. consumers and industry pay for gas supply, according to a new report prepared by ICF International for the American Petroleum Institute (API). It’s the latest word, of many, in the ongoing discussion about whether exporting some of America’s gas bounty is prudence or folly.

While natural gas prices have recovered to nearly $4.00/MMBtu, the National Energy Board (NEB) Thursday said Canadian gas producers are undertaking minimal drilling activity, as current prices do not cover the full costs of developing most prospects.

A cold beginning to spring that resulted in a tepid start to the natural gas storage refill season has analysts at the Energy Information Administration (EIA) once again revising their natural gas price forecasts upward for the rest of 2013 and 2014. The government agency added that strong onshore production growth will offset Gulf of Mexico declines in both years.

Natural gas spot prices, which averaged $2.75/MMBtu at the Henry Hub last year and $3.33 last month, are expected to climb to an average of $3.41 this year and $3.63 in 2014, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects total domestic marketed natural gas production to increase to 69.8 Bcf/d in 2013 from 69.2 Bcf/d in 2012, and to drop slightly to 69.5 Bcf/d in 2014. Growth in Lower 48 onshore production, driven largely by the Marcellus Shale and other shale plays, will continue through 2014, although it will be offset by Gulf of Mexico declines, EIA said.

Hurricane Sandy appears to have posed a minimal disruption to oil and gas companies operating in the Marcellus Shale.

Ahead of the annual shareholder meeting on Friday, Chesapeake Energy Corp. acquiesced to demands of major shareholder groups and Carl Icahn, who now holds 7.8% of the stock, and said four existing independent directors would resign from the board. The company also has put up for sale 337,481 net acres in its prized Utica/Point Pleasant Shale, which would give it less than one million acres in the play.