Relevance

Natural gas bulls shouldn’t pin their hopes on a hurricane-inspired rally given the abundance of gas in storage and the diminished relevance of offshore natural gas supplies to the North American market, an analyst said Thursday.

In a move that has relevance for the viability of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies in California, ICA Fluor, a U.S.-Mexico joint venture, announced Wednesday it has obtained a $100 million contract from Sempra Energy to build a key part of its Energia Costa Azul LNG receiving terminal that is set to open in the next quarter along the Pacific Coast of North Baja California, Mexico. ICA Fluor was tapped to build a nitrogen injection plant and an onsite electric generation facility within the existing Sempra LNG facility.

Noting the “growing relevance and importance to investors and lenders,” Moody’s Investors Service announced Thursday it will expand its research and analysis in several areas of corporate credit analysis. The credit ratings service said it would apply “greater analytical focus and commit additional resources to its analysis and published research on the quality of financial accounting and the transparency of corporate disclosure, corporate governance issues, and risk management and derivatives issues related to credit.”