nymex settlement

The elephant named Marcellus that has been sitting on Northeast-Henry Hub basis isn’t about to move along, and what used to be a premium market will see trades discounted to the U.S. gas benchmark for a while, analysts at Credit Suisse said in a note Tuesday.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co.(Pioneer) andPioneer Southwest Energy Partners LP(Pioneer Southwest) have struck an agreement for their previously announced merger under which Pioneer Southwest would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Pioneer operating companyPioneer Natural Resources USA Inc.(seeShale Daily,May 13). The transaction is intended to consolidate the West Texas Midland Basin activities of the two companies and facilitate Pioneer’s plans to fully and optimally develop the area utilizing horizontal drilling. The combination is expected to provide organizational, operational and administrative efficiencies, Pioneer said. Pioneer Southwest’s public unitholders are to receive 0.2325 of a share of common stock of Pioneer per Pioneer Southwest common unit surrendered, plus a whole share of Pioneer common stock in lieu of any fractional share of Pioneer common stock otherwise issuable in the merger. The transaction is expected to result in 3.95 million additional shares of common stock being issued by Pioneer.

The first two months of the 2013 Atlantic hurricane season have been relatively quiet, but the peak mid-August through October portion of the season remains on track for above-normal tropical storm activity, according to forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

TheU.S. Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) has updated oil and gas storage tank emission standards issued in April 2012 to allow the phase-in of emission control deadlines and to alleviate confusion over implementation. Higher-emitting tanks will be affected by the new requirements first. The rule changes also provide time for operators to acquire and install necessary emissions controls. The changes are in response to stakeholder comments that revealed that more storage tanks will be coming online than EPA had originally thought. Storage tanks that emit six or more tons of volatile organic compounds (VOC) per year must reduce emissions by 95%. Two control deadlines were established by the latest changes. Tanks that come online after April 12, 2013 are likely to have higher emissions and must control VOC emissions within 60 days or by April 15, 2014, whichever is later. Tanks that came online before April 12, 2013 are likely to have lower emissions and must control VOC emissions by April 15, 2015. The updatedstandardsalso establish an alternative emissions limit that would allow owners/operators to remove controls from tanks if they can demonstrate that the tanks emit less than four tons per year of VOC emissions without controls.

In a skirmish between a power generator looking to cover its intermittent service needs and a natural gas pipeline company attempting to switch some underutilized pipe to liquids service, American Electric Power Service Corp. (AEP) has told FERC it has “serious concerns” about a Texas Gas Transmission proposal to abandon portions of its Eunice, LA-to-Hardinsburg, KY, pipeline.

J. Christopher Giancarlo, executive vice president of the brokerage firmGFI Group Inc., has been nominated byPresident Obamato fill an opening on theCommodity Futures Trading Commission(CFTC). If confirmed by the Senate, Giancarlo would replaceJill Sommers, who resigned in July (seeNGI,July 8). The term begun by Sommers ends in April 2014. Giancarlo has been with GFI since 2001. Previously, he was the executive vice president atFenics Ltd., a partner withBrown Raysman Millstein Felder & Steinerand from 1992-1997, a founding partner withGiancarlo & Gleiberman. A former chairman of theWholesale Market Brokers’ Association Americas, Giancarlo received an undergraduate degree from Skidmore College and a juris doctor from Vanderbilt University School of Law. Giancarlo, like Sommers, would serve as a Republican at CFTC. No more than three members of the five-member commission may be from the same political party. The CFTC currently consists of DemocratsBart Chilton,Mark Wetjenand ChairmanGary Gensler, RepublicanScott O’Malia, and the seat vacated by Sommers.

The Rocky Mountain area provided years of solid natural gas growth until an upstart called shale oil came along. Now the massive region is providing both, with operators showing that from a lot, they can produce a lot. Here’s a review of area developments surfacing over the past week in 2Q earnings reports from several operators.

The Heinz Endowments — a Pittsburgh-based philanthropic organization that has given millions to both supporters and opponents of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) — has caused a stir with its abrupt dismissal of its environmental program director, and indications it will be going in new directions.

Producers reporting their operations results in 2Q2013 over the past week indicate no let-up in the work to be done, with liquids/oil growth from the Eagle Ford funding forays into the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (TMS).