natural gas

It was a wild and wooly week of gas trading where multiple dollar gains and losses were commonplace throughout the country as frigid temperatures in some regions were offset by more temperate conditions in others. Pipelines strained under the high demand. No matter the weekly gain or loss, prices were regionally and nationally high across the country for the week ending Feb. 7, with the NGI National Weekly Spot Gas Average vaulting $1.67 to a stout $9.43.

Physical natural gas prices for Friday delivery fell hard and fell often in Thursday’s trading as weather forecasters called for warming trends in the Midwest, East and California.

Miles Tolbert, former Secretary of the Environment for Oklahoma, is joining Chesapeake Energy Corp. in mid February to lead the company’s environment, health and safety (EH&S) legal group. Tolbert served as Oklahoma’s environment secretary from 2003-2008, where he was responsible for protecting the state’s natural resources. He joined the law firm Crowe & Dunlevy in 2008. Previously Tolbert served the U.S. Department of Justice in the Environmental and Natural Resources Division. He also formerly was chief of the environmental protection unit for the Oklahoma Attorney General.

More than three years after ruptured natural gas pipeline killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood in San Bruno, CA, officials again are challenging state regulators and Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) by filing a lawsuit alleging they failed to produce public documents related to the tragedy.

The window is closing on the opportunity to export liquefied U.S. natural gas to world markets and the U.S. Department of Energy should approve all remaining export license applications by the end of the year, the House Energy and Commerce Committee said in a report released Tuesday.

Hydraulic fracturing is safe; it’s a key component of the country’s quickening pace toward energy independence, and the industry and government need to do more to educate citizens about the practice to dispel their fears, former secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior Ken Salazar told a Houston audience Wednesday.

Appalachian heavyweight Range Resources Corp. increased its proved reserves last year by 26%, driven largely by improved well performance across its 955,000 net acres in the Marcellus Shale, where it has focused on completing wells with longer laterals and more hydraulic fracture (frack) stages.

Last year was a significant one for Spectra Energy Corp., which opened a series of projects, including the New Jersey-New York Expansion Project on its Texas Eastern Transmission Co. and Algonquin Gas Transmission systems, and the Houston-based company has no intention of resting on its laurels.

Proppant consumption is increasing rapidly in the Anadarko and Denver-Julesburg basins, and the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales, as operators look to punch up reserves from horizontal well completions, PacWest Consulting Partners said in a new report.