Responsible

Following up on President Obama’s mandate earlier this spring, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced a group of environmental, industry and state regulatory experts that will make recommendations to improve the safety and environmental performance of natural gas hydraulic fracturing in shale formations.

Calling it a fresh look, the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced Wednesday a new multi-state environmental impact review on oil shale and tar sand plans in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. This could eventually impact the allocation of shale and tar sands resources.

Bernard S. “Bernie” Lee, who served as president and CEO of the Institute of Gas Technology (IGT) for 21 years until his retirement in 1999, has died, according to the Gas Technology Institute. Lee was responsible for the development of various synthetic fuels programs involving coal, oil shale and liquid hydrocarbons and was a recognized expert on energy, particularly fossil fuel conversion technologies. In the past four years Lee had been promoting the development of massive electricity storage. In addition to serving on IGT’s board of trustees and executive committee, Lee also served on the boards of National Fuel Gas Co., NUI Corp. and Peerless Manufacturing Co.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (PRC) has named Charmaine Jackson, a communications professional, as the PRC’s Native American Liaison, responsible for keeping open lines of communication between the regulators and all Indian nations, tribes and pueblos in the state. Jackson will advise the five-member elected regulatory commission on all Native American matters and is expected “to establish and maintain mutual understanding and good relations.” A communications/journalism graduate from the University of New Mexico, Jackson previously served as the public information officer for the Navajo Nation’s president and vice president (2002-04). She also served as the information officer for the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department (2004-06). Jackson was the first Native American news reporter to broadcast in the Four Corners region of the state with an NBC-TV network affiliate, KOBF-TV, in Farmington, NM. One of the five current PRC members, Theresa Becenti-Aguilar, previously served the commission in the same liaison position.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell signed into law Wednesday legislation reducing the amount of roll-back tax that owners of farmland must pay when leasing land and mineral rights for natural gas development.

Seeking to shore up relations with communities in Susquehanna County, PA, where state officials say Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. is responsible for contaminated groundwater, the Houston-based producer hosted an overflow crowd of thousands of residents at a free community picnic Saturday in Montrose, the county seat.

The natural gas futures market was abuzz last week over an analyst’s comments that growth in the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) might be responsible for the rebound in prices over the last month despite the lack of supportive fundamentals. While some analysts were claiming that the exchange-traded fund (ETF) might be cornering the market because it allegedly is holding title to as much as 80% of the June contract’s open interest on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), other analysts and traders were less convinced the story, and/or the percentage, could be true.

The natural gas futures market was abuzz Thursday over analyst’s comments that growth in the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG) might be responsible for the rebound in prices over the last month despite the lack of supportive fundamentals. While some analysts were claiming that the exchange-traded fund (ETF) might be cornering the market because it allegedly is holding title to as much as 80% of the June contract’s open interest on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), other analysts and traders were less convinced the story, and/or the percentage, could be true.

At least one source was convinced that resolving end-of-month imbalances had been chiefly responsible for Wednesday’s price gains across the board, because the cash market switched to losses at all points Thursday with little overall change in weak weather fundamentals. The launch of the May aftermarket got an additional negative nudge from Wednesday’s decline of 3.7 cents by June futures as they assumed prompt-month status.