nymex settlement

Liquids-rich and oil plays have clearly won the hearts and dollars of North American producers. The Eagle Ford and Bakken shales are stars now, but several others are poised to join or possibly eclipse them, according to a recent note by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

The Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Lease Sale 233, which last week offered for bid 20.7 million acres offshore Texas, yielded fewer offers and lower total high bids than in the past, with 12 operators making 61 offers for 53 blocks that covered just more than 300,000 acres, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) officials said.

The Dow Chemical Co. last week confirmed it would move forward to expand two big petrochemical facilities along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana integrated by “advantaged shale gas.” A unit of Royal Dutch Shell plc also has launched an open season to solicit more interest in a proposed ethane cracker expected to be sited in Pennsylvania.

A new frontier is opening for unconventional drilling in the Canol Shale, a sub-arctic landscape of forests, muskeg swamps and permafrost 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) north of the border between Western Canada and the United States.

TheFederal Energy Regulatory Commissionhas issued a favorable environmental assessment (EA) to allowGulf South Pipelineto build the Southeast Market Expansion Project for increased natural gas deliveries primarily to the Southeast. TheBoardwalk Pipeline Partnerssubsidiary proposes to construct about 70 miles of 24-inch diameter and 30-inch diameter gas pipeline facilities in Mississippi and Alabama; and 34,215 hp of additional compression in Mississippi. It also requests thatPetal Gas Storage LLCbe permitted to abandon capacity by lease to Gulf South. Capacity on the system would be increased by 510,500 Dth/d if the Commission approves it. Capacity would serve the expanding Southeast gas markets and provide additional volumes to the Northeast market via an interconnect withTranscontinental Gas Pipe Line. The project, estimated to cost of $283.8 million, is targeted for in-service on Nov. 1, 2014. Construction is scheduled to get underway in April 2014, assuming the project is approved.

In a bid to loosen the natural gas capacity constraints that are plaguing the Marcellus Shale region and wreaking havoc on associated pricing points, upgrades in the form of pipeline loops and compression upgrades are coming online virtually every week.

Paula Gantof theAmerican Gas Association(AGA) has been tapped effective Sept. 9 asU.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oil and Natural Gaswithin theU.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE)Office of Fossil Energy(OFE). Gant is to report toActing Assistant Secretary for Fossil FuelsChristopher Smith,who among other things is the Obama administration’s point man for gas export permits.Environmental Defense Fundchief counselMark Brownsteinsaid Gant “fully understands that we cannot have a secure energy future if we do not protect the environment.” Gant spent seven years working on federal and state regulatory policy for natural gas issues at the AGA, a national trade group representing gas utilities and their customers, mostly as senior vice president for policy and planning. She began her career working forDuke Energy Corp., focusing on electric power generation and gas distribution in the Americas, Europe and Australia. She holds a bachelor of arts degree in Economics fromMcNeese State Universityand a doctorate in economics fromAuburn University.Julio Friedmann, whose experience at theLawrence Livermore National Labsis in carbon capture, utilization and sequestration and fossil energy conversion, also is joining OFE asU.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal.

The upcoming winter will be colder than normal for most of the United States, including New England, according toFarmers’ Almanac, a forecast that would have furnaces working overtime in some of the nation’s largest population centers.

New England power generators will be held responsible for outages based on their economic decisions not to line up deliveries of natural gas or other fuel, but will not be liable if they can demonstrate the fuel/transportation is unavailable, according to a mixed ruling issued by FERC in response to a complaint filed by the New England Power Generators Association (NEPGA).