Price

U.S. natural gas prices should hit $4.00/Mcf by the end of 2015, four years earlier than forecast, reflecting reductions in the total rig count and lower associated output, Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. (TPH) analysts said Thursday.

U.S. operators have begun implementing various ways to maintain their exploration and development programs in the United States, with some tweaking hedging strategies, others working with lenders and some scrapping expansion plans. Even more appear to be cutting back on employees and contractors, according to Friday’s jobs report.

Recognizing the growing gloom over sharply falling global oil prices, North Dakota’s chief oil/natural gas regulator Thursday told state lawmakers at a committee hearing in Bismarck that the situation doesn’t necessarily spell doom for the state’s robust energy production, which has set continuous growth records, elevating the state to the nation’s No. 2 spot in oil production.

As an outgrowth of severe natural gas price spikes a year ago, FERC at year-end approved a proposed tariff solution for California’s electric grid operator allowing for start-up and minimum load cost recovery for gas-fired generation plants that sometimes can be caught in weather-related gas price spikes.

February natural gas is expected to open 5 cents lower Tuesday morning at $3.15 as traders reassess weather forecasts and prepare for a volatile market. Overnight oil markets fell.

Cheniere Energy Inc.’s Corpus Christi Liquefaction LLC has made a liquefied natural gas (LNG) sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with EDP Energias de Portugal S.A. (EDP).

Several publicly traded onshore exploration and production (E&P) companies are signaling big cutbacks to their 2015 capital spending plans, and some private operators are expecting to see activity reined in sooner rather than later.

Former BG Group plc executive Martin Houston’s newly launched Parallax Energy is developing mid-scale liquefied natural gas (LNG) assets; putting together a gas marketing and trading shop; and, through an affiliate company, will be hunting for value in the U.S. shale patch. Houston told NGI he’s getting ready for the price volatility to come.

November natural gas is set to open a penny lower Tuesday morning at $3.66 as the market attempts to swallow the latest round of moderating weather forecasts and the possibility of an extended storage injection season. Overnight oil markets rose.