natural gas prices

The 12-month default rate for struggling exploration and production (E&P) companies, those rated “B2” or below, could more than double over the coming year, Moody’s Investors Service said in a new report.

A septet of senators from both sides of the aisle, led by Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Chris Coons (D-DE), have introduced legislation to reauthorize energy programs included in the America Competes Act.

Halliburton Co. has reached an agreement with BP Exploration & Production Inc. to resolve remaining issues regarding the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. No financial details were announced. Halliburton CEO Dave Lesar called BP a “valued customer,” and the “amicable resolution…allows us to close another chapter in the Deepwater Horizon case…” The agreement “allows Halliburton to strengthen its relationship with BP by negotiating a global master services agreement between the companies.” Halliburton previously agreed to settle punitive damages claims brought by a class of plaintiffs arising from incident, and all claims that BP assigned to the settlement class in BP’s April 2012 settlement with the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (see Daily GPI,Sept. 2, 2014).

A Senate panel approved a $35.4 billion spending bill without a controversial provision that would block the Obama administration from modifying the Clean Water Act (CWA), but a spokesman for Sen. John Hoeven (R-ND) said at this point he is planning to introduce such a provision when the full Appropriations Committee takes up the bill on Thursday, or possibly in another appropriations bill.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Tuesday continued his push for better crude-by-rail safety standards in Pennsylvania, with a letter encouraging two of the state’s leading railway operators to “expeditiously” comply with new federal rules for transporting flammable liquids and implement tighter rules of their own.

Next-day gas fell hard and fell often in Wednesday’s trading as temperatures Thursday in major Midwest markets were expected to moderate considerably while eastern markets were seen backing off of early-week readings in the high 80s to low 90s.

Jack Lafield has stepped down as CEO of Caiman Energy II LLC and Blue Racer Midstream LLC, a joint venture formed by Caiman and Dominion Resources Inc. Lafield would continue to serve as chairman of Caiman Energy and as a member of Blue Racer’s board. CFO Stephen Arata has been promoted as CEO at both companies. Vice President of Finance Kyle Irons has also been named CFO.

Bechtel has gotten the go-ahead from Cheniere Energy Inc. to begin construction of two liquefaction trains that are the beginning of the Corpus Christi Liquefaction project in Texas (see Daily GPI,May 12). “We have initiated construction on our second LNG [liquefied natural gas] export facility, the Corpus Christi liquefaction project, located on the Coastal Bend of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico. Including our LNG export facility at Sabine Pass [see Daily GPI,April 28;Oct. 30, 2014], we now have six trains under construction, with first LNG expected at Sabine Pass from Train 1 by year end,” said Cheniere CEO Charif Souki. Corpus Christi project is designed for up to three trains with expected aggregate nominal production capacity of 13.5 million tonnes per annum; three LNG storage tanks with capacity of 10.1 Bcfe; two LNG carrier docks and a 22-mile, 48-inch diameter natural gas supply pipeline. The first train is expected to start operations as early as 2018, with the second train expected to commence operations six to nine months thereafter.

In the article “Ohio Seismic Network Receiving Four More Seismometers,” which appeared in the May 18 issue of NGI’s Shale Daily (see Shale Daily, May 18), a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) said the Ohio Seismic Network (OhioSeis), part of the ODNR’s Division of Geological Survey, will have a total of six seismometers deployed. OhioSeis will actually have six three-component seismometers and a total of 36 seismometers deployed.