Reach

ExxonMobil Corp. said it has completed the world’s longest extended-reach well drilled from an existing offshore fixed platform drilling rig, increasing the company’s ability to produce domestic oil and gas from existing facilities at the Santa Ynez unit, offshore Southern California. The well, drilled from the Heritage platform using the producer’s Fast Drill technology, extends more than six miles horizontally and more than 7,000 feet below sea level. According to ExxonMobil, the well will be able to produce an additional 5.8 million boe, an amount equal to the annual energy consumption of more than 144,000 Californians.

Will this country’s abundant, home-grown natural gas shale resources reach their full potential as a bridge fuel to a clean, green energy future or will market forces and onerous government restrictions combine to rachet down their explosive development? Industry leaders at the 24th annual GasMart will be discussing how companies now are moderating their spending on natural gas development while emphasizing oil and liquids-rich properties, just as the economy and industrial markets are coming back to life.

Will this country’s abundant, home-grown natural gas shale resources reach their full potential as a bridge fuel to a clean, green energy future or will market forces and onerous government restrictions combine to rachet down their explosive development? Industry leaders at the 24th annual GasMart will be discussing how companies now are moderating their spending on natural gas development while emphasizing oil and liquids-rich properties, just as the economy and industrial markets are coming back to life.

ExxonMobil Production Co. has resumed drilling on two wells started earlier this year at Point Thomson on Alaska’s North Slope and is on schedule to reach total depth by year-end 2010, the company said Wednesday.

Other than highs starting to reach the 90-degree area again Wednesday in the Northeast and more modest warm-ups predicted in the Pacific Northwest, the market couldn’t count on much more cooling load than it had before Tuesday. Yet it found enough, coupled with screen support from the previous day’s 11.9-cent rebound by September futures, to achieve substantive gains at a majority of points Tuesday.

After ending a previous Overage Alert Day Saturday, Florida Gas Transmission issued a new one Tuesday, saying Florida temperatures were forecast to reach the mid 90s and utilization of its capacity was high. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was set at 25%.

Although the Northeast remains unusually mild, the market found enough cooling load in high temperatures due to reach the 90s and 100s across most of the the southern U.S. and Midcontinent, backed up by moderate warming trends in the Midwest, Rockies and Pacific Northwest, to record gains at most points Thursday. A continuing futures loss a day earlier appeared to have little impact on Thursday’s cash prices.

As it works to reach an understanding with state energy officials, Oregon LNG, one of three proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal projects in Oregon, has been faced with a hesitant Port of Astoria Commission that won an eleventh-hour reprieve in the midst of its inaction on extending a sublease to the LNG development firm for its proposed 96-acre LNG site near the mouth of the Columbia River.

As it works to reach an understanding with state energy officials, Oregon LNG, one of three proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal projects in Oregon, has been faced with a hesitant Port of Astoria Commission that won an eleventh-hour reprieve in the midst of its inaction on extending a sublease to the LNG development firm for its proposed 96-acre LNG site near the mouth of the Columbia River.