Normal

Denver-based SM Energy Co. is marketing all of its properties in the Anadarko Basin, including its Granite Wash interests. The sale of the gas-weighted assets is part of normal high-grading activities, the company said Wednesday. Proceeds could be spent in the Permian Basin or in the Eagle Ford Shale, analysts speculated Wednesday.

California’s natural gas power generation bill may be higher than normal in the first months of 2013 as the 2,200 MW San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station was shuttered. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Allison Macfarland this week was at the plant for an update but hasn’t indicated when at least one of the two units would restart. Majority owner/operator Southern California Edison Co. has asked the NRC to allow at least Unit 2 to come back to 70% of capacity.

Oil and gas operators continued to report mostly minor damage as a result of Hurricane Isaac, and production in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was slowly returning to normal Thursday, the Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) said.

Oil and gas drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) is returning to normal after last week’s visit by Hurricane Isaac, and workers being redeployed to offshore facilities are finding no major storm-related damage, according to the Bureau of Safety Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

A warmer-than-normal winter colored Southern Company’s 1Q2012 financial results, but natural gas issues, and particularly coal-to-gas trends, dominate the current landscape for the Atlanta-based operator, which recently received the first construction/operating licenses for two nuclear units in more than 30 years.

Despite the high level of natural gas storage overhang at the end of last winter, which resulted from record gas production last year and above-normal winter conditions, constructing new storage facilities in the United States is not supported by market conditions at this time, according to a report issued Thursday by FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).

“The idle well [count] increased again to 762 wells, approximately 300 above the normal 450, indicating that drilling continues to outpace fracturing services and a need to add approximately 10 crews,” Helms said in his monthly “Director’s Cut” report.

At the start of Wednesday’s gas day Destin will end a force majeure event and resume normal operations from its Main Pass 260 platform through the onshore Pascagoula Gas Plant in Mississippi (see Daily GPI, Oct. 18). The alternate delivery point to Viosca Knoll Gathering System will no longer be available for transportation services until further notice, Destin said.

If it’s wet, it’s hot; if it’s dry, it’s not; $4/MMBtu is the “new normal,” and bigger is still better when it comes to production. That’s the crux of the industry wisdom collected by Barclays Capital analyst Michael Zenker and his team at the firm’s recent CEO Energy-Power Conference.