natural gas

Driven by the Bakken shale oil boom, the governor and state legislators in North Dakota early in their biennial budget-setting session are focused on transferring more than a billion dollars in added funding to the state’s major western counties and cities needing infrastructure improvements to keep pace with the oil-induced growth.

Even as a statewide task force struggles to find potential longer term solutions to Colorado’s local control issue for future oil/natural gas development (see Shale Daily, Jan. 23), elected officials in the city of Erie, north of Denver, on Tuesday debated how to handle energy development within their borders.

The impacts of falling rigs in North America are having a domino effect along the supply chain, and pressure pumping suppliers are facing what could be an uncertain future as they begin to unveil earnings results.

The U.S. House of Representatives, by a 241-169 vote, agreed to consider a bill requiring the Department of Energy (DOE) to make decisions on certain applications to export liquefied natural gas (LNG) within 30 days, without specifying any additional details for the department to follow.

NiSource Inc. said this week that it would offer 40 million common units at $19-21 each for Columbia Pipeline Partners LP, a master limited partnership (MLP) it announced in September to help raise cash for its natural gas transmission, midstream and storage assets.

If the Obama administration’s plan to reduce carbon pollution is to be successful, it will need to rely on natural gas and existing and substantially expanded delivery infrastructure, FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur told a National Press Club audience in Washington Tuesday.

Patrick Henderson, who was appointed as Pennsylvania’s first energy executive in 2011 by former Republican Gov. Tom Corbett (see Shale Daily,Jan. 17, 2011), has been named the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s director of regulatory affairs in a position it created for him. Henderson’s role as energy executive ended when Gov. Tom Wolf took office (see Shale Daily,Nov. 5, 2014). Henderson in his new role is to work with lawmakers in the general assembly on oil and gas-related issues.

Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it has acquired 25,820 net acres in Noble, Washington and Monroe Counties, OH, or about 80% of the assets it previously agreed to purchase from Ohio-based MNW Energy LLC. Under a purchase agreement in June, Magnum said it would buy 32,000 net acres from MNW on a staggered basis as title work for the properties cleared. Most recently, it acquired 2,665 gross acres in Washington County for $11.7 million. As part of that deal, the village of New Matamoras received a more than $307,000 lease signing bonus for 72 acres of village-owned land, which far surpassed its general fund budget of $121,368 last year.

February natural gas is set to open 6 cents higher Tuesday morning at $2.94 as near-term weather outlooks turn cooler. Overnight oil markets were narrowly mixed.