natural gas prices

With continued confidence that their proposed Gulf Coast-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project will begin construction next year, Sempra Energy senior executives last week said they are looking for other market growth opportunities from the shale-driven U.S. gas supply boom.

The Rocky Mountain area provided years of solid natural gas growth until an upstart called shale oil came along. Now the massive region is providing both, with operators showing that from a lot, they can produce a lot. Here’s a review of area developments surfacing over the past week in 2Q earnings reports from several operators.

Lake Charles Exports LLC (Lake Charles) last Wednesday became the third prospective liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal tapped by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to export domestic natural gas worldwide, bringing such authorized export volumes to 5.6 Bcf/d.

Private equity (PE) continues to put a bead on funding U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies, and there appears to be a lot more money available than ever before, unconventional operators said at the Colorado Oil & Gas Association’s Rocky Mountain Energy Summit in Denver.

Producers reporting their operations results in 2Q2013 over the past week indicate no let-up in the work to be done, with liquids/oil growth from the Eagle Ford funding forays into the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS).

A call to action was sounded last Tuesday at the Rocky Mountain Energy Summit for U.S. oil and natural gas operators to take what industry pioneers created and continue reinventing for the future — with the public’s backing.

FERC last Monday ordered BP America Inc. and affiliates to show cause in a long-running case [IN13-15] involving the alleged gaming of the physical and financial markets at the Houston Ship Channel (HSC). The Commission proposed a near-$29 million penalty for transactions taking place from mid-September 2008 through Nov. 30, 2008.

Smack dab in the middle of the country to the Texas coast, unconventional producers have reported strengthening oil and natural gas output between April and June, with strong contributions from the Permian Basin along with the Fayetteville and Woodford and liquids growth in the Barnett shales.

Colorado’s chief oil and natural gas regulator told executives in Denver last week that adopting a culture in the onshore that goes above and beyond what’s legally required will do more than anything to achieve community acceptance.