natural gas prices

Texas voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment to split half of the oil and natural gas severance tax revenues between the state’s economic stabilization fund, AKA the Rainy Day Fund, and the state’s highway fund. The Rainy Day Fund now is estimated to be worth a total of about $9 billion. The Texas Oil & Gas Association had supported the amendment (see Daily GPI,Oct. 16). The approval is expected to give the Texas Department of Transportation up to $1.7 billion in the first year of implementation for highway maintenance and to add capacity. The amount of funding would fluctuate annually depending on oil and gas revenues.

Republican Ryan Sitton won a seat on the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), beating challenger Steve Brown, a Democrat. Sitton will fill the seat vacated by Barry Smitherman, who left the commission to pursue what became an unsuccessful bid for Texas attorney general. Sitton is an engineer and runs an oil and gas consulting firm. During the campaign, he released a white paper on the water-related issues faced by the energy industry (see Shale Daily,Oct. 9). Sitton was the energy industry favorite to win, and his campaign raised far more than Brown’s. He joins RRC Chairman Christi Craddick and Commissioner David Porter on the three-member panel.

Sempra Energy is gearing up to expand its Cameron, LA, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project, pursue other export possibilities in Texas and Mexico, and assess the value of establishing a master limited partnership (MLP) backed by Cameron or other assets, senior executives said Tuesday.

Spectra Energy Partners has become the sixth member of PennEast Pipeline Co. LLC. Spectra joins AGL Resources; NJR Pipeline Co., a subsidiary of New Jersey Resources; PSEG Power LLC; South Jersey Industries; and UGI Energy Services (UGIES), a subsidiary of UGI Corp. Spectra Energy Partners and PSEG Power each have a 10% interest in PennEast; the remaining member companies each have a 20% interest. UGIES is the project manager and will operate the pipeline. The 108-mile, 36-inch diameter PennEast is planned to transport 1 Bcf/d of gas from northeastern Pennsylvania to an interconnect with Transcontinental Gas Pipeline in Mercer County, NJ (see Shale Daily,Sept. 5;Aug. 12). “This project provides Spectra Energy Partners with a strategic opportunity to leverage our existing assets by directly connecting northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale production to our Texas Eastern Transmission and Algonquin Gas Transmission systems, and allows us to further strengthen our relationship with some of our biggest customers,” said Bill Yardley, Spectra Energy president of U.S. transmission and storage.

Gas for Wednesday delivery was widely mixed in Tuesday’s trading with a slight edge to the loss side of the ledger. Gains in the Mid-Atlantic, Marcellus and Midcontinent couldn’t offset super-sized declines in New England as well as weakness in the Gulf Coast and Rockies.

Perth, Australia-based Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd.’s (LNG Ltd.) Bear Head LNG Corp. plans to double the capacity of its proposed natural gas liquefaction and export terminal on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, to 8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) from 4 mtpa.

The United States produced, consumed and delivered for consumption record levels of natural gas in 2013, and imports fell for the sixth consecutive year, according to an annualreport by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The Philadelphia City Council, after what it called an “exhaustive review,” has ruled out a nearly $2 billion sale of the Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) to Connecticut-based UIL Holdings Corp., announcing last week that it would forgo a vote on the matter and not introduce a bill to sell the city-owned utility.

Physical gas prices for Tuesday delivery fell hard in Monday’s trading as a warming trend was forecast for key eastern population centers.