natural gas

Shipper demand for 1.2 Bcf/d of new natural gas delivery capacity has prompted TransCanada Corp. to scale up its proposed Eastern Mainline Expansion into a jumbo service addition.

There will be no hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in Beverly Hills 90210, or anywhere else in the famed Los Angeles suburb, after the city council on Tuesday passed a ban on the practice.

Gastar Exploration Inc. said it has nearly finished drilling its first wells targeting the Utica Shale in West Virginia and the Hunton Limestone in Oklahoma, and plans to drill two test wells into the Woodford Shale and the Meramec Mississippian formation in Oklahoma later in the year.

Apache Corp. took a gamble when it upended its global exploration strategy, marketing some of the more contrary (political) and expensive (deepwater) pieces within its portfolio, but the decision to remain — and expand — in the U.S. onshore has proven to be a profitable bet.

The Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) job of policing how individual states oversee natural gas and other pipelines within their borders has been lacking in a number of categories, according to a report Friday by the DOT’s Office of Inspector General.

Physical gas for weekend and Monday delivery swan-dived in Friday’s trading as traders saw little incentive to purchase gas for what forecasters were calling mild weekend weather. Marcellus points took the hardest fall, aided by the well-known supply glut in the region, but New England, California, and the Midwest were right behind.

Mark Watson, interim head of theWyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC), has been named the new commission chief. Gov. Matt Mead and the other four members voted unanimously for Watson, who has been heading the agency since Grant Black resigned (see Daily GPI,April 1). Watson is a petroleum engineer who graduated from the University of Wyoming. The OGCC also established a deputy supervisor position.

Buyers seeking to replenish thin working gas inventories got something of a break for the week ended May 9. Nearly all market points recorded losses and the NGI National Weekly Spot Gas Average finished 8 cents lower at $4.55. A slightly bearish inventory report may augur a changed storage/refill outlook.

The Alaska Division of Oil and Gas received 43 bids from companies and investors interested in obtaining state leases during its latest Cook Inlet and Alaska Peninsula oil and gas lease sales. Winning bidders have 10 years to explore and potentially develop the leased acreage. The division received 40 bids from eight bidders on 35 tracts encompassing 114,203 acres in the Cook Inlet sale area. It received three bids from two bidders on three tracts encompassing 10,280 acres in the Alaska Peninsula sale area. Winning bonus bids totaled $5.35 million for the Cook Inlet sale and $51,400 for the Alaska Peninsula sale. “This year’s lease sale results show continued optimism among investors about the hydrocarbon resource potential of these two regions, and that state-owned acreage is considered highly prospective for oil and gas development,” said Division of Oil and Gas Director Bill Barron. “The sale results also demonstrate continued growth in the market potential for Cook Inlet oil and gas.”