Outlook

With a more robust outlook in the Pacific Northwest than nationally, natural gas transmission pipeline and storage expansions are inevitable in coming years in the region, according to senior officials at NW Natural, speaking Friday on a third-quarter earnings conference call that reported a quarter-over-quarter loss for the Portland, OR-based gas-only distribution utility.

The too-much-of-a-good-thing story of natural gas continued Friday as analysts at Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co. updated their outlook to 2 Bcf/d of annual onshore supply growth, which far outstrips their 1 Bcf/d projection of normalized demand growth.

The too-much-of-a-good-thing story of natural gas continued Friday as analysts at Tudor, Pickering Holt & Co. updated their outlook to 2 Bcf/d of annual onshore supply growth, which far outstrips their 1 Bcf/d projection of normalized demand growth.

The North American midstream energy sector has a positive outlook over the next 12-18 months based on an expectation that fundamental credit conditions in the industry will improve, Moody’s Investors Service analysts said Thursday.

The North American midstream energy sector has a positive outlook over the next 12-18 months based on an expectation that fundamental credit conditions in the industry will improve, Moody’s Investors Service analysts said Thursday.

While Gulf oil and natural gas activity is lagging, the economic outlook for developers of new technology to quickly identify high-pressure leaks in blowout preventers (BOP) and other outage events looks brighter, executives say.

Robust growth in Lower 48 natural gas reserves and an increasing focus on reducing emissions are painting a bleak outlook for coal-fired power plants. Coal skeptics say the fuel can’t be “clean,” at least not economically, and that gas is the future. While a study released last week said a wholesale switching to gas for power is not doable, gas interests claimed a steady migration is completely realistic and already under way.

Robust growth in Lower 48 natural gas reserves and an increasing focus on reducing emissions are painting a bleak outlook for coal-fired power plants. Coal skeptics say the fuel can’t be “clean,” at least not economically, and that gas is the future. But others say gas is unable to claim the huge segment of the generation stack that some of the cleaner fuel’s advocates claim is its right.

The latest seasonal outlook from the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) predicts that the wholesale gas market will be similar to that of last year. The effect on prices of demand increases driven by an improving economy is likely to be offset by growing supply, the trade group said.