Mountain

Salt Lake City-based Questar Corp. reports its Rocky Mountain exploration/production has stepped up substantially, compared with a year earlier, in the Pinedale (WY) Anticline, and it reaffirmed its guidance for E&P operations this year at 112-114 Bcfe. Questar made the announcement as part of an investor tour Tuesday of its Pinedale operations.

The good news for growing U.S. natural gas demand is that declining traditional reserves can be replaced by a combination of Rocky Mountain unconventional supplies and increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), but the bad news is the fact that permitting for new supply projects in these two sectors may be difficult to obtain, a panel of energy lawyers told an industry conference Thursday in Santa Fe, NM. Ultimately, Uncle Sam or neighboring Mexico could hold the keys to unlocking these supplies.

FERC on Friday issued final environmental clearance for EnCana Corp.’s proposed Entrega Gas Pipeline to transport Rocky Mountain supplies from the Piceance Basin in northwestern Colorado to the Cheyenne gas trading hub in the northeastern part of the state.

Calgary-based Enterra Energy Trust completed its acquisition of Rocky Mountain Gas Inc. (RMG) last week and entered into another purchase agreement for the outstanding common shares of High Point Resources Inc. for US$250 million.

Building on the success of its Rocky Mountain drilling program, Denver-based independent Bill Barrett Corp. reported Thursday that it increased its first quarter production by 15% to 8.5 Bcfe. The company’s net income for the quarter was $3.1 million on revenues of $51.9 million, compared with net income of $4.7 million on revenues of $36.4 million in 1Q2004.

As the two smallest of the private-sector energy utilities in Colorado, Kinder Morgan and Aquila are drawing a line in the Rocky Mountain clay soil with the state regulatory commission staff’s proposal to change the rules on how and what the electric and natural gas distributors must do to determine allocation of their costs. The two energy suppliers argue that the proposal will result in long, costly litigation fights among the companies, Public Utilities Commission (PUC) staff and customers.

As the two smallest of the private-sector energy utilities in Colorado, Kinder Morgan and Aquila are drawing a line in the Rocky Mountain clay soil with the state regulatory commission staff’s proposal to change the rules on how and what the electric and natural gas distributors must do to determine allocation of their costs. The two energy suppliers argue that the proposal will result in long, costly litigation fights among the companies, Public Utilities Commission (PUC) staff and customers.

FERC staff on Friday issued preliminary environmental approval to EnCana Corp.’s proposed Entrega Gas Pipeline to transport Rocky Mountain supplies from the Piceance Basin in northwestern Colorado to the Cheyenne gas trading hub in northeastern Colorado.

Rocky Mountain region producers may be entering a golden age in which prices for their production are nearly equal to what producers in neighboring regions are able to bring home. Some price differentials have tightened significantly because for the first time in many years there actually appears to be more takeaway pipeline capacity out of the Rockies than there is supply to fill it.