natural gas

Physical gas for delivery Friday was mixed in Thursday’s trading as both buyers and sellers scrambled to get their deals done prior to the release of government storage data.

Radiant Oil & Gas Inc., an independent exploration and production (E&P) company based in Houston, has acquired a legacy oil and natural gas field in Louisiana for future redevelopment.

U.S. primary energy consumption totaled 7.66 quadrillion Btu in May, and natural gas met 24.1% of that demand, a 0.8% increase from a year earlier, according to preliminary estimates compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

It was a tale of two markets in spot trading for Thursday deliveries as eastern points plunged in response to weather forecasts sharply milder than Tuesday, with some locations in the Northeast seeing declines of well more than $1.00.

ZaZa Energy Corp. and an affiliate of private equity firm Quantum Energy Partners has struck an East Texas joint venture (JV) agreement that includes acreage in Walker, Grimes, Madison, Trinity and Houston counties. ZaZa is to receive about $17 million, consisting of cash and a right to receive Quantum’s interest in the next 15 East Texas JV wells. ZaZa is to assign to Quantum 6,000 net acres in undeveloped leases within its East Texas JV and is to retain its interest in all existing wells and the right to participate with respect to Quantum’s working interest in reserved wells. Following the assignment, ZaZa will have about 30,000 net acres in its East Texas JV and about 10,000 net acres in its East Texas focus area. Closing is subject to the approval of ZaZa’s existing East Texas JV partner. “ZaZa has been meeting with Quantum for more than a year to lay the groundwork for this new relationship,” said CEO Todd Brooks. “Our new partnership validates the progress ZaZa has made, and we look forward to working with Quantum as we move forward with our East Texas acquisition and development plans.”

Natural gas led the way for new electricity generation capacity in the first half of 2014 (1H2014), accounting for about half of the added capacity, according to the latest electricity monthly statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Monday.

North Dakota officials on Tuesday issued a plea for three additional oil/natural gas inspectors to keep an eye on gathering pipeline systems that are sprouting up to support record production from the Bakken and Three Forks formations in the Williston Basin.

The U.S. natural gas and oil industry generates more than 9.3 million permanent jobs, or nearly 7% of the entire workforce, and provides close to $1.2 trillion in gross product (GP) a year, a study by an economic group has found.

Rockies operator WPX Energy Inc. has taken on a partner for some of its gassy Piceance Basin operations, G2X Energy, a Houston firm that, among other things, develops natural gas to methanol projects.