Reflected

FERC on Tuesday issued a certificate for Tennessee Gas Pipeline’s Northeast Upgrade Project, which would expand the company’s existing 300 Line system in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to provide an additional 636,000 Dth/d of Marcellus Shale gas to Northeast markets. This comes only months after Tennessee placed into service an initial expansion and upgrade of the 300 Line.

Kinder Morgan Inc.’s (KMI) acquisition of El Paso Corp. is taking place in a world of growing gas supply from nonhistoric basins, which is driving the need for new and different infrastructure: gas and liquids pipelines, processing, fractionation, etc. It’s too soon to say how a combined KMI-El Paso will play the infrastructure game, but consolidation among others shouldn’t be a surprise, energy analysts told NGI.

The United States in 2010 continued to lead the world in natural gas production, boosted by massive shale deposits, according to the latest statistical review by BP plc.

The number of rigs actively searching for oil and gas in U.S. unconventional plays dropped by 1% for the week ending April 8, wiping out the 1% gain recorded for the segment during the previous week, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

NGI’s Shale Price Indices in Tuesday’s issue (No. 115) incorrectly reflected deals done Friday March 18 for gas delivery March 19 through March 21. The correct indices for deals done March 21 for March 22 delivery are attached and the issue’s pdf has been updated. ( click here for revised pdf )

Falling cash prices at nearly all points Thursday reflected the fact that the latest blast of cold weather is starting to wane, although forecasts of Friday lows around freezing were still common in northern market areas and extended as far south as Atlanta.

Reflected again in the latest financial results, Sempra Energy has a growing “problem” of success in the energy commodity trading business that a lot of other firms would like to emulate, and its senior executives told financial analysts Friday they are constantly evaluating what to do with the business longer term, including taking on a partner that would expand it on a worldwide basis.

The fact that major Wall Street investment companies are forecasting a drastic drop-off in oil and natural gas prices in the second half of the decade, a drop-off that is not reflected in NYMEX futures, could create a stock market buying opportunity, Houston analyst John Olson told GasMart attendees in Denver Wednesday.

Was it a case of “you can’t keep a good market down?” Following two days of mostly falling prices, which reflected the general bearishness of market influences, cash quotes for the weekend rallied at a majority of points Friday.