Offering

With a number of regions set to experience a warm-up this week and Friday’s futures action offering no real support, cash market points across the country on Monday mostly recorded drops in the neighborhood of 20 to 40 cents, with some eastern points declining by 60 cents or more.

The quest to discover new oil and natural gas reserves resulted last week in the most successful lease sales ever in Alaska, with producers offering a total of $2.7 billion to capture a share of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea.

The quest to discover new oil and natural gas reserves resulted Wednesday in the most successful lease sale in Alaska, with producers offering a total of $2.7 billion to capture a share of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea.

With a stated goal of offering people within the energy industry a way to reduce the burden of rolling index commodities forward every month while also allowing them to track the effects of contango and backwardation in the crude markets, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) said last week that it plans to launch the MACI futures and the Backwardation-Contango index futures contracts in February 2008.

With a stated goal of offering people within the energy industry a way to reduce the burden of rolling index commodities forward every month while also allowing them to track the effects of contango and backwardation in the crude markets, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) said Monday it plans to launch the MACI futures and the Backwardation-Contango index futures contracts in February 2008.

Dominion is offering customers increased access to new gas supplies expected from the Rocky Mountain region through a project the company announced Friday. It is yet another effort by the industry to move gas eastward from the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX).

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. Wednesday said it received bids on 30,000 net acres of minerals and generated more than $82 million in proceeds in a lease offering by auction of its open and unleased mineral interests in Arkansas.

PPL EnergyPlus, a seller of wholesale and retail electricity based in eastern Pennsylvania, began offering retail natural gas to commercial and industrial customers in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware, the company said Tuesday.

Williams Pipeline Partners LP has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch an initial public offering (IPO) in 4Q2007. Formed by Tulsa-based Williams, the initial asset of the new partnership will be a 25% stake in Northwest Pipeline GP, which includes a 3,900 mile bi-directional interstate pipeline system that accesses natural gas supplies in the Rocky Mountains, Canada and the San Juan Basin and serves key markets in the Pacific Northwest. It also includes a working natural gas storage capacity of 12.4 Bcf. Williams will continue to own the remaining 75% interest in Northwest Pipeline and Williams employees will continue to operate it. The IPO expects to offer 13 million common units, representing a 53.6% limited partner interest. Following the IPO, a Williams subsidiary will own the 2% general partner interest, all of the incentive distribution rights and a 44.4% limited partner interest.