Past

Royal Dutch Shell, which has spent nearly $5 billion over the past seven years to drill in Alaska’s offshore, suspended its plans to drill for oil and natural gas in Arctic waters this year due to damage to a containment system caused by sea ice.

Natural gas demand for U.S. electricity generation this winter is likely to look a lot like it did this past winter, 2.5-2.6 Tcf, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Deputy Administrator Howard Gruenspecht said at the LDC Gas Forum in Chicago. In addition, a lot of coal-fired generation will still be around, but how much capacity gets used will depend on natural gas prices. “We’re again expecting the power burn to run between 2.5 Tcf and 2.6 Tcf of gas for the period of December this year through March 2013…There is about 500 Bcf going to generation that could switch back to coal should natural gas prices start to rise above our expectations.” Gruenspecht said earlier this year the power burn was running more than 24 Bcf/d of gas to generate electricity. “We’re now expecting over the course of this year for the Henry Hub natural gas price to average about $2.65 and the average to move up to $3.34 next year. There is a lot of uncertainty about natural gas prices, in September we are looking at a future contract price ranges from $2.30/MMBtu to almost $4.70/MMBtu.”

Natural gas demand for U.S. electricity generation this coming winter is likely to look a lot like it did this past winter, 2.5-2.6 Tcf, a top official in the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) told the LDC Gas Forums mid-continent meeting Tuesday in Chicago.

Range Resources Corp. CEO Jeff Ventura said Wednesday the company’s Marcellus Shale leasehold may have the long-term potential for 24-30 Tcf of reserves.

Noting the continuing downward spiral of forward natural gas prices during the past four years, Fitch Ratings said it expects continued weakness in gas prices to spell potential trouble for many U.S. independent electricity generators. Fitch on Thursday released a report on U.S. power markets and generators.

The Permian Basin in West Texas is the main engine driving Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) to record oil/gas production levels as its overseas operations continue to struggle in the Middle East/North Africa and Colombia, CEO Stephen Chazen said Thursday.

Based on the state’s latest statistics as of the end of February, North Dakota’s oil production has doubled in the past two years, and with the help of increased rail transportation it is being marketed nationwide.

Continuing as one of the leading producers in the Marcellus Shale play, Fort Worth, TX-based Range Resources Corp. on Thursday reported increased production of natural gas, liquids and crude oil, while prices were down and initial results were in on Pennsylvania’s newly imposed natural gas impact fee. The fee’s initial charge put overall production taxes at about $13.6 million, or 23 cents/Mcfe, for the first quarter, Range said.

One day after Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. agreed to sell $100 million of convertible preferred units in subsidiary Eureka Hunter Holdings LLC to an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, the producer announced Thursday that $58.5 million of the proceeds would be used by Eureka Hunter to acquire natural gas treating company TransTex Gas Services LP, a privately held company based in Houston.