Northeast

December natural gas is set to open about 2 cents lower Tuesday, keeping Monday’s 15-cent surge largely intact amid some mixed changes overnight in the weather data. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

The current slate of Marcellus and Utica shale takeaway expansions exceeds expected supply growth, a dynamic that points to shrinking Appalachian basis differentials and major upside for regional production over the next few years, according to analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Southwestern Energy Co., one of Appalachia’s largest natural gas producers, expects Northeast basis differentials to improve now that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission quorum has been restored and a path has been cleared to get more pipeline projects approved and built, management said.

A large majority of voters in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York embrace affordable and reliable energy in New England, but a much smaller majority embrace natural gas pipelines to make that happen, according to a new poll released by industry group Consumer Energy Alliance (CEA).

Funds managed by subsidiaries of the energy-focused investment firms Triloma Financial Group and EIG Global Energy Partners have committed $300 million to Northeast Natural Energy LLC.

A massive increase in natural gas pipeline capacity from Appalachia is poised to hit the market over the next couple of years, which when combined with a likelier looser federal regulatory environment, may temper Henry Hub prices in 2018 and beyond.

While the 2016-2017 winter to date has been largely the winter that wasn’t for much of the country, cold weather is expected to grab hold of the northern tier of the United States well into spring, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

New Hampshire, the Granite State, has been impenetrable to Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC’s Access Northeast Project, and the rest of New England hasn’t been too hospitable to new pipe in the ground either. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage might not be the answer to Maine’s energy woes, according to a recent Navigant Consulting Inc. report. But more natural gas would serve the Northeast well, wrote analysts at S&P Global Ratings.

Spectra Energy Partners LP management is rethinking the Access Northeast project, with plans to add local distribution companies (LDC) to its customer mix after some New England states have effectively nixed contracts with electric distribution companies (EDC). The company also might pursue a legislative fix in at least one state.