Renewed

The U.S. Commerce Department has granted Valero Energy Corp. a one-year authorization to ship crude oil from the U.S. Gulf Coast to a company-owned refinery in Quebec, Canada.

Denver-based exploration and production (E&P) independent Venoco Inc. drew attention in a recent financial commentary citing the renewed oil/gas production in formerly depleted fields in and around Los Angeles as proof that E&P activity can coexist in heavily populated urban areas (see Daily GPI, July 8).

U.S. energy independence won’t be achievable until at least 2030, even with a renewed focus on domestic energy resources, energy infrastructure and unconventionals, according to more than two-thirds of the energy executives responding to a new survey conducted by KPMG Global Energy Institute (GEI).

A trade group representing municipal gas utilities has renewed its call for Congress to revise the Natural Gas Act (NGA) to give shippers on interstate natural gas pipelines the authority to request refunds if their rates have been over-recovered.

A trade group representing municipal gas utilities has renewed its call for Congress to revise the Natural Gas Act (NGA) to give shippers on interstate natural gas pipelines the authority to request refunds if their rates have been over-recovered.

Southern California Gas declared a high-inventory OFO for Monday but as of that afternoon had not renewed it for Tuesday. SoCalGas said it would assess Buy-Back charges to customers who delivered into its system more than 110% of their actual gas usage on the OFO day.

Tenaska Marketing Ventures/Tenaska Marketing Canada/Tenaska Gas Storage (collectively TMV) has renewed a $1 billion committed credit facility for a four-year term maturing in July 2014. The facility, first established in 2006, will be used to finance TMV’s natural gas inventory transactions and as liquidity support for TMV’s operations. TMV is the natural gas marketing affiliate of Tenaska, which recently was ranked eighth in NGI’s North American natural gas quarterly trading survey (see Daily GPI, June 10). Tenaska regained control of TMV in January 2009 after completing a repurchase from affiliates of American International Group Inc., which at the time owned a half stake in the venture (see Daily GPI, Jan. 9, 2009). BNP Paribas and Societe Generale were co-lead arrangers of the credit facility renewal; the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd., Rabobank Nederland, Natixis and Credit Agricole CIB were co-documentation agents. A total of 20 lenders participated in the facility.

In a sign of renewed optimism in U.S. drilling, Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. last week agreed to pay $494 million to buy nearly all of the natural gas and oil reserves in eastern Colorado held by the U.S. arm of Canada’s Suncor Energy Inc.

After looking like the rally of last week was stifled by Friday’s nearly 30-cent decline, October natural gas futures showed renewed strength on Monday as the contract popped back above $3 to record a high on the day of $3.375 before closing out the regular session at $3.297, up 33.7 cents — 11% — from Friday’s finish.