Pieces

The pieces are in place to gradually lift natural gas prices over the next five years, and the gas market is proving that free markets, capitalism and economic fundamentals still work, Raymond James & Associates Inc. analysts said in a note Monday.

While California state officials are mulling new regulations related to oil and natural gas drilling, including hydraulic fracturing (fracking), a Stanford-connected engineering researcher/consultant has completed an updated analysis on some earlier work cautioning that fracking can induce seismic activity in geologically active areas, such as some of California’s old producing fields.

The Natural Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Wednesday began sifting through pieces of the Columbia Gas Transmission system that ruptured near the pipeline’s Lanham Compressor Station sear Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

The Natural Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Wednesday began sifting through pieces of the Columbia Gas Transmission system that ruptured near the pipeline’s Lanham Compressor Station sear Sissonville, WV, a rural community of 4,000 about 15 miles north of the state capital, Charleston.

For the time being at least, Marcellus Shale producers are paying the price for too much of a good thing. Concentrated development in the nation’s preeminent shale gas play has made for basis-inverting constraints on Tennessee Gas Pipeline. However, the industry has seen this sort of thing before (in the Rockies more than once, for instance), and the market will work it out, eventually, a Marcellus producer told NGI’s Shale Daily.

Among more than a half-dozen new pieces of legislation that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law at the end of last month, two laws aimed at curbing the spike in metal thefts from utilities, municipalities and farm equipment suppliers (AB 844 and SB 691) were prioritized as the most important new laws for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), according to one of the utility’s managers in Sacramento.

Prices fell at most points Monday as the industry began picking up the pieces after the passage of Hurricane Ike. Notwithstanding major power outages in coastal areas of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana and continuing massive shut-ins of offshore production, “it could have been worse” seemed to be the most common perception.

As the pieces of the massive Rockies Express (REX) pipeline continue to fall into place, the in-service dates for some facilities have proven to be moving targets, as was evidenced last week by a construction update from REX.

Gulf of Mexico pipeline operators have been so busy picking up the pieces from last year’s hurricane season that they’ve apparently had little time and resources for building new Gulf of Mexico infrastructure. But if current indications are correct, the 2006 hurricane season will be something of a vacation compared to last year.