NYMEX

A lot of under-used natural gas pipeline capacity from supply sources on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border is a key competitive advantage in Oregon for two proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, according to backers of the Jordan Cove and Oregon LNG projects.

Five years ago National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. put in place a long-term strategy to deliver Pennsylvania and New York natural gas utility customers with natural gas from long-haul pipelines moving from the Gulf Coast. The Marcellus Shale since has sent that strategy out the window.

Assuming the U.S. natural gas business continues its robust growth, Mexico is likely to shift from being a natural gas importer to a liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, Sempra Energy International CEO George Liparidis told participants last week at the Wolfe Research Power and Gas Leaders Conference in New York City.

Top industry executives from Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Texas last week told a crowd at the Shale Insight 2013 conference in Philadelphia that states and not the federal government should continue to be the primary oil and natural gas enforcers.

The pioneering shale gas and oil developers have to be unshackled by “prison guards of the past” to allow the United States to achieve energy independence, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on the closing day of the Shale Insight conference in Philadelphia.

Will anyone be able to look back on this time in the United States and not consider it to be a golden age for natural gas? Will anyone doubt that the Marcellus Shale was the blazing star in that firmament?

FERC last week approved a joint request for temporary waivers of some agency regulations to facilitate the $3.75 billion sale of Apache Corp.’s Gulf of Mexico (GOM) assets to Fieldwood Energy LLC.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday issued long-awaitedproposed rulesfor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for new power plants, leaving gas-fired plants mostly unaffected but making construction of new coal-fired plants problematic.

For the week ending Sept. 20 physical gas prices nationally averaged a 7-cent gain to $3.67. A handful of eastern points fell into the loss column but for the most part gains of a nickel to a dime at individual points were common. The Northeast was the only region posting a loss, down 3 cents to $3.39 and East Texas was the biggest winner adding 10 cents to average $3.69.