Ramp

With natural gas production continuing to ramp up in the Appalachian supply basin of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, NiSource’s Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. (TCO) said Tuesday that it has filed a $40 million infrastructure expansion plan with FERC that will increase its ability to deliver natural gas from the region.

With more than 400 major oil and natural gas projects scheduled to ramp up over the next five years, the energy industry is facing a sharp “people deficit” of 10-15% as soon as 2010, according to an analysis by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).

With more than 400 major oil and natural gas projects scheduled to ramp up over the next five years, the energy industry is facing a sharp “people deficit” of 10-15% as soon as 2010, according to an analysis by Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA).

The $3.5 billion Tahiti project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which was scheduled to ramp-up in mid-2008, will be delayed for an unknown period because of metallurgical problems discovered in the facility’s mooring shackles, Chevron Corp. said Thursday. Tahiti’s peak production is expected to be 125,000 b/d of oil and 70 MMcf/d of natural gas.

The $3.5 billion Tahiti project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which was scheduled to ramp-up in mid-2008, will be delayed for an unknown period because of metallurgical problems discovered in the facility’s mooring shackles, Chevron Corp. said Thursday. Tahiti’s peak production is expected to be 125,000 b/d of oil and 70 MMcf/d of natural gas.

Benefiting from a rise in oil prices and the ramp-up of facilities damaged by hurricanes last year, Chevron Corp. on Friday surpassed Wall Street estimates with a 40% jump in third-quarter profit compared with the same period a year ago. Leading independent Chesapeake Energy Corp., meanwhile, managed to outsmart the natural gas market by successfully hedging against falling prices, while also boosting its U.S.-based gas production.

Uncertainty about when gas processing units damaged by Katrina will ramp up again, as well as concerns about pipeline integrity, continued to provide market support on Thursday. The Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported that offshore gas production had barely moved from levels on Wednesday.

With Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production starting to ramp up again after Hurricane Dennis proved to be just as much a hit-and-run storm as predecessors Arlene and Cindy (see related story), traders sent prices lower, mostly by substantial amounts, at nearly all eastern points Monday. The West was more of a mixed bag, with several instances of flatness bracketed by gains as large as nearly 20 cents and losses of up to about 20 cents.

With major projects around the world scheduled to ramp up in the next few years — including two in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico — ChevronTexaco Corp. expects its oil and natural gas production to grow at a compounded average rate of 3% a year over the next five years to reach 3 MMboe/d by 2009.