Offices

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) released its latest report on Marcellus Shale inspections and violations, while its acting secretary defended recent enforcement policy changes.

The industry has just “scratched the surface” of the unconventional gas potential of Appalachia, according to the head of one of the first companies to operate in the play, but producers need to partner if they hope to realize its full potential.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is closing both its Charleston, WV, and Denver regional offices by the end of the summer, but the CEO said there are no plans to sell any of its Rocky Mountain, Midcontinent or Marcellus Shale reserves.

The workload for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wyoming offices is growing by the day — as are its coffers — with natural gas producers requesting environmental assessments to ramp up drilling projects across the state.

The workload for the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Wyoming offices is growing by the day — as are its coffers — with natural gas producers requesting environmental assessments on a variety of proposed drilling projects.

Spot gas prices were up — but relatively moderately outside some sections of the West — at most points Monday as traders returned to their offices to find Tropical Storm Edouard had sprung up offshore southeast Louisiana during the preceding afternoon. In fact, the big rally Monday that had been predicted going into the weekend (see Daily GPI, Aug. 4) due to forecasts of major heat in much of the U.S. was rapidly fizzling with prices tending to retreat as trading proceeded, a couple of sources said.

A returning and a new member of the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) will be sworn into their respective offices Tuesday, giving the state regulatory commission a permanent replacement for Marc Spitzer, a former member and state legislative leader who accepted a nomination to FERC earlier this year. The ACC will begin the new year with a full complement of regulators.

Most if not all of the big Houston-area energy trading shops are setting up satellite offices in other locations in order to try to maintain business operations Thursday and Friday in the event that Hurricane Rita draws a bead on their city. With maximum sustained winds of 165 mph, Rita was classified as a Category Five storm Wednesday afternoon, the most dangerous hurricane category.

Alarm bells should be ringing in the offices of pipeline companies and domestic producers as imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) is expected to grow to about 12% of annual U.S. gas supply in 2010 from only about 1-1.5% today. Such a dramatic increase in supply, coming into the market at brand new locations, will drive down pipeline transportation values and gas prices, according to analysis done by Wakefield, MA-based Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI).