Research

The Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of two unconventional natural gas research and development projects for cost-shared funding. DOE will provide about $694,000 to University of Texas at Austin for R&D on a 3-D hydraulic fracture modeling project that will be tested by Anadarko Petroleum Corp. in the Carthage field in East Texas. It also will provide about $500,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a 4-D seismic R&D project to be demonstrated by EnCana Corp. in the Jonah Field in Wyoming.

The Consumer Energy Council of America (CECA) on Wednesday said it supports increased research and development of technologies and approaches to develop nonconventional sources of natural gas, including methane hydrates, ultra-deepwater development, deep gas formations, coalbed methane, shale gas and syngas from coal or biomass. The group also became the first consumer organization to advocate the expansion of nuclear power.

The Department of Energy (DOE) said that after five years of DOE-funded research a new drilling technology is available for commercial use that will allow a drill bit to transmit real-time drilling and geological data to the surface. DOE’s Department of Fossil Energy called the technology, which is owned by Houston-based Grant Prideco, a “downhole Internet” for drilling. It turns ordinary drill pipe into an information highway, the agency said.

The rumblings of a nasty gas market reversal can be heard loud and clear, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll in a research note, predicting the current price collapse would continue into the summer.

The rumblings of a nasty gas market reversal can be heard loud and clear, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll in a research note, predicting the current price collapse would continue into the summer.

Due to a little taste of winter-like cold returning to northern market areas and the possibility of early storage refills already getting under way, prices were up at nearly all points Monday.

Former Enron Corp. CEO Jeffrey Skilling told top executives, including founder Kenneth Lay, “they’re on to us,” after reviewing an investment boutique’s research note that was critical of Enron’s special purpose entities (SPEs) run by then-CFO Andrew Fastow, a witness testified Thursday. Fastow, potentially the star witness in the trial of Skilling and Lay, is expected to take the stand this week in Houston.

Independent investment research firm Morningstar Inc. named Kinder Morgan CEO Richard Kinder its 2005 CEO of the Year for his “exemplary corporate stewardship” and track record of increasing shareholder value.

The General Accountability Office (GAO), the research and investigative arm of the Congress, has issued a report finding that actions by the FERC, CFTC and the Congress have resulted in reforms to privately published natural gas price indices to the point that industry stakeholders “in general, are reasonably confident in the short-term prices now reported by trade publications and the improved quality of overall information.”