Produce

A new deepwater gas discovery by Pioneer Natural Resources will bring gas output from the Falcon Nest platform to about 400 MMcf/d in the next 12 months, the company said last Wednesday.

A new deepwater gas discovery by Pioneer Natural Resources will bring its gas output from the Falcon Nest platform to about 400 MMcf/d over the next couple of years, the company said Wednesday.

Newfield Exploration Co. said Friday that it expects to produce about 183 Bcfe this year, an increase of 5% over production results in 2001. For the fourth quarter, the Houston independent expects production to range between 36-40 Bcf, or 390-435 MMcf/d.

Legislation to improve the safety and security of pipelines finished its long road through the U.S. Congress Thursday and was on its way to the president, who is expected to sign into law new rules for pipeline inspection and employee training, increased penalties for operating violations, establishment of a nationwide one-call system and protections for whistle-blowers (H.R.3609).

The U.S. pipeline sector is trending toward a negative outlook because of liquidity, increasing regulations and changing party counter risks, a Fitch Ratings Oil & Gas group analyst said Tuesday. “First and foremost,” said analyst Hugh Welton, the energy merchant-owned domestic pipelines are weighed down by the “negative overhang of liquidity issues at the parent company level.”

Legislation to improve the safety and security of pipelines finished its long road through the U.S. Congress last Thursday and was on its way to the president, who is expected to sign into law new rules for pipeline inspection and employee training, increased penalties for operating violations, establishment of a nationwide one-call system and protections for whistle-blowers (H.R.3609).

The U.S. pipeline sector is trending toward a negative outlook because of liquidity, increasing regulations and changing party counter risks, a Fitch Ratings Oil & Gas group analyst said Tuesday. “First and foremost,” said analyst Hugh Welton, the energy merchant-owned domestic pipelines are weighed down by the “negative overhang of liquidity issues at the parent company level.”

Most Gulf Coast and Northeast prices were jumping by double-digit amounts Tuesday morning in response to growing offshore production shut-ins and the previous day’s screen spike. The gains tended to range from less than a dime at a few Gulf points to about 30 cents at FGT Zone 3, where Destin’s outage contributed greatly to supply shortfalls.

The 11 majors and independents that produce about 14% of the natural gas for the Lower 48 are reporting a 1.7% sequential decline over the first quarter and a 5.8% decline over a year ago, according to research by Lehman Brothers’ analyst Thomas R. Driscoll. The analyst, who surveys a total of 45 producers that overall account for 70% of U.S. production, has revised a previous forecast of flat production for the quarter, and now predicts either a small increase or decrease, in the range of +0.4% to 0.4%, from the first quarter of this year.