natural gas data

With a seemingly ever-increasing mother lode of crude oil from the Bakken Shale play, North Dakota lawmakers have embarked on a process for developing a long-term strategy regarding state revenues and taxation of the oil industry. An initial review of bidders to help in mapping the strategy is set for Oct. 31.

Natural gas prices on average gained 9 cents nationally for the week ended October 11. Only a handful of points in the Midcontinent and Northeast endured declines and the vast majority of locations enjoyed gains, some well into double digits.

Range Resources Corp. said it is complying with a court order to obtain and provide information for all of the chemicals used at a Marcellus Shale drilling and impoundment site in Washington County, PA, but it took issue with media reports suggesting that the company doesn’t know what chemicals are used in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations.

The western United States may on the brink of an upsurge in natural gas demand outstripping supply, which would require new infrastructure, a panel of experts said last week at the LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West in Los Angeles.

Unconventional natural gas in the onshore likely will keep U.S. prices low until 2020, but it may not translate to climate benefits or an improved economy, according to an elite group of industry, academic and scientific experts.

In the wake of the news Friday that the Energy Information Administration (EIA) would cease operations and furlough its staff thanks to the U.S. Government shutdown, traders and analysts are waiting to see how the natural gas futures market deals with the lack of a weekly storage inventory update.

Separate deals in Florida, Texas and Nebraska announced last week could begin to expand the highway for natural gas vehicles (NGV).

While there are risks inherent in finding the yellow brick road to global energy growth, U.S. natural gas demand is likely to take off between now and 2020, a Goldman Sachs economist told an industry audience last week at the LDC Gas Forum Rockies & West meeting in Los Angeles.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA), one of the few governmental agencies that was able to stay open during the beginning days of the shutdown because it had reserve funds, said it would cease operations and furlough its staff at the end of the day Friday.