Pocket

As many as 1,500 residents in two to three neighborhoods were evacuated Thursday after drillers hit a pocket of natural gas that caused a well to blow out behind a fire department substation in Carlsbad, NM, city Fire Chief Michael Reynolds said.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BHI) has $15 billion burning a hole in its pocket to invest in the energy industry and there is $100 billion of other investors’ money “waiting on the sidelines” to see if Congress passes a broad energy bill this year that repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), MidAmerican Energy’s David Sokol told a natural gas strategy conference in Denver last week.

Berkshire-Hathaway has $15 billion burning a hole in its pocket to invest in the energy industry and there is $100 billion of other investors’ money “waiting on the sidelines” to see if Congress passes a broad energy bill this year, which includes repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), MidAmerican’s David Sokol told a natural gas strategy conference in Denver this week.

The Rockies remained the last bastion of rising prices Thursday with gains on either side of 30 cents for CIG and Questar and about a quarter for Kern River and Northwest. Otherwise the cash market found it had already milked the last drop of price strength from a return of cold weather in the East. Even the Southwest basins, California and intra-Alberta joined eastern points in price movement that ranged from flat to down about a quarter in most cases. The Northeast again led the way downward with even bigger losses that ran as high as about 70 cents at the Algonquin citygate.

You probably don’t need a pocket calculator to determine that the market isn’t exactly ready right now for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). But according to a new study by PIRA Energy Group, prices should average more than $3/MMBtu at the Henry Hub through 2015, creating an solid market over the long-term in the United States for a worldwide LNG supply that is expected to more than double over the next decade.

You probably don’t need a pocket calculator to determine that the market isn’t exactly ready right now for imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). But according to a new study by PIRA Energy Group, prices should average more than $3/MMBtu at the Henry Hub through 2015, creating an solid market over the long-term in the United States for a worldwide LNG supply that is expected to more than double over the next decade.

Despite a regional pocket of persistent resistance, Canadian producers keep on expanding their northern frontier of natural gas development by connecting newly-discovered reserves to the pipeline grid. While a small Indian band continued to hold up the action last week in a 50,000-square-mile area of northeastern British Columbia, the industry moved to add an entirely new supply area in the southern Northwest Territories.

A rich pocket of natural gas in the shallow waters off the coast of Mississippi is paying off handsomely for Chevron U.S.A. Production Co., which reports that production has more than tripled this year in its Viosca Knoll Carbonate Trend to 230 MMcf/d, up from 60 MMcf/d in 1999.

A rich pocket of natural gas in the shallow waters off the coastof Mississippi is paying off handsomely for Chevron U.S.A.Production Co., which said yesterday that production has more thantripled this year in its Viosca Knoll Carbonate Trend to 230MMcf/d, up from 60 MMcf/d in 1999.