Purchases

August natural gas declined slightly Wednesday as algorithmic traders showed little interest in purchases at current prices and the market awaits the release of government inventory figures. August had fallen 3.3 cents to $4.500 and September had skidded 4.2 cents to $4.469. August crude oil gained 64 cents to $98.14/bbl.

Southcross Energy has acquired from Tauber Pipeline LLC about 58 miles of 6-, 8-, 10- and 12-inch diameter natural gas pipelines in San Patricio and Refugio counties in South Texas, the Dallas-based midstream company said Tuesday. Terms were not released.

In less than a week, credit rating outlooks for several pre-paid long-term natural gas purchases by public-sector utilities and the billions of dollars of bonds supporting them turned more positive Tuesday as Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services translated an uptick in the outlook for a Merrill Lynch & Co. unit as cause to remove negative outlooks on the muni deals. Earlier in May S&P was giving all of the same deals a “negative” outlook.

House lawmakers in Oklahoma Tuesday passed legislation that would extend for five years an existing tax credit for clean vehicle purchases to buyers of vehicles powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG) or electricity. The vote was 90-4. The bill will be sent to the Senate for final consideration. The credit is equal to 50% of the cost of conversion of a vehicle to operate on a qualified fuel, as well as those originally equipped to do so. The bill would also add hydrogen and hydraulic hybrid vehicles to the state’s list of qualified fuels. Oklahomans installing home-fueling stations for the vehicles would be eligible for $2,500 tax credits. An earlier House vote on HB 1949 was 94-4 in favor (see Daily GPI, March 24).

Apache Corp.’s acquisition of nine Permian Basin natural gas and oil fields from Marathon Oil Corp. may be the first of several purchases this year, executives said Thursday.

Apache Corp.’s acquisition of nine Permian Basin natural gas and oil fields from Marathon Oil Corp. may be the first of several purchases this year, executives said Thursday.

Savvy energy purchases, tighter cost controls and higher power sales lifted Sempra Energy’s profits by 10% in the last three months of 2008, easily surpassing Wall Street’s expectations.

Savvy energy purchases, tighter cost controls and higher power sales lifted Sempra Energy’s profits by 10% in the last three months of 2008, easily surpassing Wall Street’s expectations.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday approved a joint natural gas hedging plan for winter supply purchases by Sempra Energy’s two utilities. It is similar to plans the CPUC approved for Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) the past three winters.