News

Following key pipeline infrastructure upgrades over the past two years, MDU Resources Inc.’s Boise, ID-based Intermountain Gas Co. has told Idaho state regulators it should be able to serve the natural gas needs of the southern part of the state without any significant new capital projects during the next five years.

The White House climate action plan, announced in a speech Tuesday, comes down hard on coal-fired power plants, pledges continued support for the development and use of non-polluting renewable energy and promotes “cleaner-burning natural gas” as a bridge to a clean future.

The physical natural gas market added an average of 4 cents Monday for Tuesday delivery, led by surging prices at Northeast points prompted by warm temperatures and big jumps in next day power. Eastern points also tallied double digit gains, far outdistancing trading centers in the Midwest and Gulf as well as those in California and the Rockies. At the close of futures trading July had fallen 3.2 cents to $3.739 and August was off 3.3 cents to $3.760. August crude oil recovered $1.49 to $95.18/bbl.

The revival of the U.S. industrial sector will be “the most significant driver” to higher long-term natural gas prices, lifted by new ethylene crackers, ammonia plants and natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) facilities fed by stores of natural gas, according to an analysis by Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Wyoming Interstate Co. LLC (WIC) pipeline has asked FERC to approve an offer of settlement and an accompanying stipulation and agreement (S&A) resolving allegations that it was over-recovering its costs, resulting in unjust and unreasonable rates for its shippers.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said it found naturally occurring dissolved methane at several household wells used for drinking water in Sullivan County, PA, during pre-drill baseline testing at sites not near existing oil and gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Rex Energy Corp. is seeing some positive results from a well targeting Ohio’s Utica Shale, but it is disappointed with a third-party well completion technique at another and is blaming bad weather for delays in turning some wells to sales.

A coalition of conservation groups led by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has inked a settlement agreement with the Interior Department and the oil and natural gas industry that would restrict seismic testing in certain parts of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the next two and a half years to protect whales and dolphins from high-intensity airguns that are are used to find oil and gas deep underneath the ocean floor.

SandRidge Energy Inc. founder Tom Ward, the company’s only chairman and CEO since it was formed in 2006, was ousted last week by the board of directors, which said its decision was “in the best interests of the company and its shareholders at this time.”