Recovery

The cash market decided to ignore the slow pace of offshore production recovery from the one-two punch of hurricanes Gustav and Ike and instead focused on the overall lack of weather-based demand for those missing supplies Friday. Abetted by the previous day’s 28.9-cent decline in October futures and the weekend dropoff of industrial load, the weakness of weather fundamentals drove all but a few Texas points lower. Just as there were quite a few triple-digit increases on Thursday, several points saw drops of about a dollar or more Friday.

The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) continues to fight the migration of distribution system cost recovery from volumetric to fixed charges. This time it’s a plan by Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio that the OCC is resisting.

OG&E Monday proposed to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) that it recover only 50% of its higher natural gas costs this summer — deferring the allowed recovery until later this year — to give customers a break on their bills.

A sustained recovery is beginning for Canadian natural gas exports, trade records kept by the National Energy Board (NEB) confirm. Volume and revenue gains that started around Christmas continued through the heating season, shows the NEB’s latest report on pipeline traffic across the Canada-U.S. border.

A sustained recovery is beginning for Canadian natural gas exports, trade records kept by the National Energy Board (NEB) confirm. Volume and revenue gains that started around Christmas continued through the heating season, shows the NEB’s latest report on pipeline traffic across the Canada-U.S. border.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is touting a net recovery potential of more than 2 Tcf from yet another North American natural gas shale play, this time in Colorado’s Raton Basin, which is expected to contribute to the Dallas-based independent’s growing output in the coming years.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. is touting a net recovery potential of more than 2 Tcf from yet another North American natural gas shale play, this time in Colorado’s Raton Basin, which is expected to contribute to the Dallas-based independent’s growing output in the coming years.

A producer was accurate for the most part in predicting a modest rally in the cash market Thursday as a result of the huge recovery from negative territory by May futures the day before (see Daily GPI, April 3). Most points did see gains, with a majority of them in single digits. However, quite a few quotes at scattered locations were flat to down as much as about 20 cents.

Noting that the company has “a rich history” in technological research and development in the recovery of conventional resources, ConocoPhillips is dedicating $150 million in 2008 to the development of nonconventional oil and gas resources and the development of new energy sources, such as renewables, said CEO Jim Mulva.