natural gas prices

Sasol Ltd. on Monday pulled the trigger on an $8.1 billion ethane cracker and derivatives complex at its Lake Charles, LA, facility, an expansion that should triple the South African company’s chemical production capacity in the United States.

November natural gas is set to open 4cents lower Friday morning at $3.58 as traders note little change in mild weather forecasts and increased production is expected to make up for an expected storage deficit relative to last year. Overnight oil markets retreated.

Any environmental impacts of the proposed Constitution Pipeline and Wright Interconnect projects could be reduced “to less than significant levels” with the implementation of 43 mitigation measures, according to a final environmental impact statement (FEIS) issued Friday by FERC staff.

Oregon regulators on Tuesday increased retail natural gas rates due to higher commodity costs for the state’s three investor-owned gas distributors –NW Natural Gas,Avista UtilitiesandCascade Natural Gas– effective Saturday (Nov. 1). The largest increases approved by theOregon Public Utility Commissionwill be imposed on industrial customers, ranging up to 13.4% for Avista’s largest customers. The state’s largest gas distributor, NW Natural, will increase rates overall by $23 million, or 3.4% (10.4% for industrials); for Avista, the increase totals $7.73 million, or 8.3%; and Cascade will have a $543,000 increase, or 0.86% (3.7% for industrials). The state’s gas supplies come from suppliers in western Canada and the U.S. Rockies.

Downeast LNG Inc. (DELNG) has filed at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for authorization to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) to free and non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries from its terminal proposed for Washington County, ME. The company is seeking authorization to export up to 173 MMBtu per year, equivalent to about 168 Bcf per year, for a 20-year period to non-FTA countries. The volume represents the peak production rate of the planned liquefaction facility. DELNG also is seeking authorization to export to FTA countries the same volume under the same terms. While essentially a revamp of a previously proposed import terminal, Downeast as re-imagined would have a small amount of regasification capacity just in case it one day becomes advantageous to switch over to imports or provide LNG peaking services to the market (see Daily GPI,June 20). The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently said it would prepare an environmental impact statement for the project [CP07-52, CP07-53] (see Daily GPI,Oct. 6;July 23).

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has signed a bill into law requiring operators to report production on a monthly basis. The state legislature unanimously supported the bill (see Shale Daily,Oct. 21). The law will go into effect next year, with the first reports due by March 31 and after that within 45 days of the reporting period’s close. Pennsylvania operators were previously required to report production twice a year, or every six months. Corbett also signed a bill requiring exploration and production companies to provide a document to leaseholders detailing the expiration of a lease. The bill, which was sponsored by a Republican state representative, is aimed at clarifying uncertainties about when exactly a lease expires. Operators will now have to provide a document that surrenders interests to the land within 30 days of the lease’s termination.

A few eastern points made it to the positive side of the trading ledger in Friday trading for weekend and Monday deliveries, but otherwise losses averaging a dime or more were common.

It was a rough week for those thinking it was time for natural gas prices to begin their normal seasonal advance into late November. For the week ended Oct. 24 all market points west of the Ohio Valley followed by NGI fell into the loss column. NGI’s National Weekly Spot Gas Average fell by 13 cents to $3.29.

Former BG Group plc executive Martin Houston has formed liquefied natural gas (LNG) project developer Parallax Energy in Houston. The new company said Thursday that it has LNG projects and a gas supply and trading business in development, and has “formed strategic partnerships with world-class industry operators.” Parallax has a partnership with upstream player Millennial Energy Partners. Houston, who is Parallax chairman, was BG Group’s COO and executive director before retiring. “My partners [in Parallax] and I have been involved in many of the contemporary liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects developed globally in the last 20 years, and we are excited to launch that expertise in new ways,” Houston said.