Replacement

As expected, the loss of quite a bit of cooling demand from earlier in the week with almost-negligible replacement by new heating load didn’t allow Wednesday’s overall minor gains to persist. Instead, cash prices fell almost the board Thursday. The June futures drop of 6.5 cents a day earlier was another bearish factor in Thursday’s market.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) approved four deals with Marcellus Shale operators at its April meeting, including one that could lead to drilling on state lands.

Last year Range Resources Corp. grew proved reserves 42% to 4.4 Tcfe and replaced 931% of its production for the year, the company said Tuesday.

Shale player Magnum Hunter Resources Corp. grew its total proved reserves by 116% last year, and the value of reserves grew 171% from the year-ago period, the Houston-based company said Tuesday. And there will be more growth like that this year if the company’s CEO is correct.

After spending big in the nation’s gas shale patch — and taking some heat for it — Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey K. McClendon said Thursday it is time for the company to reap what it has sown in announcing the Oklahoma City-based producer’s plans for this year and next.

Panhandle Eastern said there will a pipe replacement outage lasting about 14 days starting Wednesday on the Houstonia 100 Line between gate valves 104 and 112W. During this period capacity through Houstonia will be limited to 1,250 MMcf/d, but the restriction is not expected to impact firm service.

With heating load continuing to recede and replacement cooling demand still missing in action for the most part, prices fell at nearly all points Thursday. Although softness had replaced firmness as the dominant characteristic of price movement, near-flat numbers were still in vogue as few points changed by a dime or more.

Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG), a pipeline subsidiary of El Paso Corp., last Monday asked FERC for authorization to place into service the Phase II facilities of its Cypress Pipeline project , an expansion of SNG that would extend from the pipeline’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Georgia to the Florida market. The request comes nearly a year after SNG placed Phase I of the expansion into operation (see NGI, May 7, 2007).

Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG), a pipeline subsidiary of El Paso Corp., Monday asked FERC for authorization to place into service the Phase II facilities of its Cypress Pipeline project , an expansion of SNG that would extend from the pipeline’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Georgia to the Florida market. The request comes nearly a year after SNG placed Phase I of the expansion into operation (see Daily GPI, May 2, 2007).