natural gas prices

The seemingly intractable knot in natural gas-power coordination will only get tighter as the country increasingly relies on gas to produce its electricity. Despite government efforts to build consensus between the two giant industries, it appears they are not even close to a solution.

A major drought, loss of a major nuclear power plant, and increased reliance on intermittent renewable power shouldn’t phase California’s grid this summer, according to a new report. Gas-fired power can step in, but with some caveats.

With support from the governor’s office, Wyoming oil/natural gas stakeholders on Monday introduced a strategy for using liquefied natural gas (LNG) produced in the state to replace diesel fuel in many applications within the oil/gas industry.

Mark Watson, interim head of theWyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), has been named the new commission chief. Gov. Matt Mead and the other four members voted unanimously for Watson, who has been heading the agency since Grant Black resigned (see Daily GPI,April 1). Watson is a petroleum engineer who graduated from the University of Wyoming. The OGCC also established a deputy supervisor position.

Amelia Resources LLC is hosting a data room through Monday (May 19) to market 138,000 net acres in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS). “Recent results have created a lot of interest in the TMS play [see Shale Daily,May 12;May 8;April 29;April 14],” said Amelia President Kirk Barrell. “Drill times have greatly improved along with a decrease in associated costs.” The parcel being sold is “the only remaining large aggregate block of acreage in the play. We believe that the repeatability and economics of this play will be extremely competitive with other U.S. oil plays.” Barrell said, “The initial potentials, production volumes, and decline curves indicate large recoverable reserves in the range of 400-900 million boe. The play economics, consistency of the reservoir, and resulting reserves will make this a very competitive play for years to come.”

Physical gas for Wednesday delivery weakened in Tuesday trading with eastern points taking hits of 25 cents or more. Only a few scattered points managed to trade in positive territory, and for the most part, locations were down by anywhere from a couple of pennies to a dime or more. On average the market was off nearly a dime.

Physical natural gas traded Monday for Tuesday delivery was widely mixed with prices swinging as much as 25 cents above or below unchanged. New England points suffered the indignity of having temperatures swing from summer-like conditions to well below normal within the space of 24 hours, and Chicago also saw a 15 degree drop from “summer” to normal within a day’s time period as well.

While the saturation of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in other parts of the world, such as Italy and Brazil, is much deeper in the passenger car market and taxis than in North America, overseas and U.S. markets share some of the same questions and concerns, judging from a panel at the NGV Global joint program Thursday at ACT Expo in Long Beach, CA.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. continued to focus on divesting non-core assets in the first quarter, as it looks to shore-up its liquidity and narrow its focus on two core areas in the Appalachian and Williston Basins that continue to slowly drive production gains.