Pushing

Ironically, the oil and natural gas industry’s recent focus on shale plays, which was made possible by technological breakthroughs, has prompted more recent innovations, according to Jonathan Lewis, Halliburton senior vice president, drilling & evaluation.

Major joint ventures (JV) in North American unconventional resource plays were a driving force in pushing worldwide merger and acquisition (M&A) activity to a record high in 2010, preliminary data indicate.

North America’s growing shale gas plays were the key determinant in pushing global liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply away from American shores. But now the gravity of the shale gas bubble is so strong it could pull in empty tankers to take American gas away to Asian, European and other markets.

It seems like everybody and their brother and sister has begun pushing more drilling capital expenditures into “oilier” shale gas assets, somewhat at the expense of the drier plays. What will it take to return some of the former luster of nearly all-dry plays such as Haynesville?

After pushing higher in early Thursday trade, the July natural gas futures contract — in its first regular session action as the front-month contract — reversed course temporarily following news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) that 104 Bcf was injected into underground storage for the week ending May 21. However, futures rallied back to record a high of $4.312 before closing the regular session at $4.294, up 11.5 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

Traders followed the script of the last few days in pushing the February natural gas futures contract lower on its Wednesday expiration. The contract broke below the recent range’s $5.354 low to $5.223 before going off the board at $5.274, down 21.1 cents from Tuesday’s finish. The March contract, which now assumes front-month status, dropped 20.6 cents to close at $5.224.

Traders followed the script of the last few days in pushing the February natural gas futures contract lower on its Wednesday expiration. The contract broke below the recent range’s $5.354 low to $5.223 before going off the board at $5.274, down 21.1 cents from Tuesday’s finish. The March contract, which now assumes front-month status, dropped 20.6 cents to close at $5.224.

After pushing a few pennies higher in low-volume trading on Friday, the upward momentum appeared to run out heading into Monday’s regular session as the January natural gas contract plummeted back below $5. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $4.823 before closing out the day at $4.848, down 34.4 cents from Friday’s finish.

While pushing back the potential of Alaska natural gas until the 2025 time frame, a panel of industry executives with a focus on Western Canada painted a near-term future for British Columbia (BC) that could see the province greatly expand its gas production from 3 Bcf/d to 5 Bcf/d based on growing potential for new supplies from shale. As a result, the executives who spoke Wednesday at the LDC Gas Forum: West & Rockies in Irvine, CA, think the idea of exporting some of those supplies as liquefied natural gas (LNG) is still a real possibility.