News

Physical natural gas prices on average gained a penny in trading for Tuesday deliveries, but California prices soared as next-day power made huge weather-driven gains. Northeast locations were also strong, but many market hubs were flat to within a couple of pennies higher or lower.

The Macondo well blowout spilled much less oil than the U.S. government estimates of 4.9 million bbl, according to a reservoir engineering expert hired by operator BP plc.

Natural gas is a critical part of Colorado’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy, and it is encouraging its increased development, including the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking), in a safe and responsible way that can be managed between government and industry, said Gov. John Hickenlooper as part of a Western Governors’ Association (WGA) three-part energy report (see related item).

Florida Power & Light Co. (FPL) said Monday it will demolish its 1,205 MW oil-fired Port Everglades Power Plant in Port Everglades, FL, on July 16 to make room for a new facility to be fueled by U.S. natural gas. The company called the move one more step toward its goal of energy independence.

President Obama’s climate action plan may increase reliance on natural gas as a baseload source of electricity generation, but it is also sparking plans for coal export projects in the West to market U.S. supplies to Asia-Pacific markets.

The Republican-led House on Thursday passed legislation that would enact the terms of a U.S.-Mexico transboundary agreement governing the development of shared oil and gas resources along the two countries’ maritime boundary in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama last week said he opposed the bill, but he stopped short of saying he would veto it.

Chevron Corp. will gain access to some needed infrastructure to develop a portion of its one million-acre leasehold in the Permian Basin in West Texas, and Cimarex Energy Co. will have expanded opportunities in a key Texas county under a joint agreement.

Environmental surcharges will be permanently tacked onto Canadian pipeline tolls if the National Energy Board (NEB) grants requests by natural gas and oil transporters to make shippers cover cleanup liabilities.

Decades of oil and gas drilling, and the jobs and benefits it provides, are engrained in Texas culture, and it’s a way of life that Pennsylvanians now are attempting to assimilate, but residents of both states continue to reconcile the advent of shale gas drilling, according to a survey of 1,600 adults.