Resulted

Two big-ticket acquisitions in the Fayetteville Shale by BHP Billiton Petroleum and XTO Energy Inc. suggest that the pace of development in the play will be accelerating, acknowledged Steve Mueller, CEO of Fayetteville veteran Southwestern Energy Co. But his company can hold its own, having locked in some of its costs and beaten down drilling times, Mueller said.

After enduring major supply shortfalls late last week that resulted in service curtailments for some downstream customers, El Paso did a complete turnabout during the weekend. It declared a change to normal pack condition Saturday morning and then said the situation had graduated to a high pack condition late that afternoon, where it remained Monday. El Paso was suspending all Park services and imbalance paybacks to the pipe until further notice. Maximum withdrawals from Washington Ranch storage field last week had changed into maximum injections by late Saturday night. El Paso appealed for assistance from “any customer [who] can voluntarily take more gas or reduce some supply for a period of time.” A force majeure and emergency Critical Operating Condition implemented during the cold weather last week had been canceled Saturday and were not replaced by any similar actions related to the new high-linepack situation.

Demand exceeding capacity has resulted in a linepack loss downstream of Stations 245 and 321, Tennessee said, prompting it to issue Critical Day 1 OFOs for all LMS-PA Balancing Parities in Zones 5 and 6 effective Sunday. The OFOs will be in addition to Action Alerts implemented Friday in those zones along with one in Zone 4, Tennessee said.

FERC has approved an uncontested settlement resolving allegations that Great Lakes Gas Transmission LP “substantially” overrecovered its cost of service, which resulted in “unjust and unreasonable” rates.

After a string of mostly declines last week, the natural gas cash market rebounded on Tuesday as some early summer heat resulted in most locations recording increases from a few pennies to a dime.

Congressional allocation last year of $5 billion for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) weatherization assistance program has so far resulted in very few homes in the nation being weatherized and jobs being created, according to an interim status report by the department’s inspector general (IG).

Congressional allocation last year of $5 billion for the Department of Energy’s (DOE) weatherization assistance program has so far resulted in very few homes in the nation being weatherized and jobs being created, according to an interim status report by the department’s inspector general (IG).

Colder-than-normal conditions in a number of the country’s major gas markets last week resulted in a smaller-than-normal storage injection report. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday morning that 18 Bcf was added to working gas storage for the week ending Oct. 16, well below both last year’s 71 Bcf build for the week and the five-year average injection of 60 Bcf.

British Columbia’s September oil and gas rights sale resulted in more than C$8.7 million in bonus bids, bringing the calendar year to date to C$330.6 million, the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources said. The sale offered — and sold — 34 parcels covering 15,885 hectares at an average price of C$549/hectare. The top bids included three drilling licenses and two leases in the Graham River area, about 50 kilometers northwest of Hudson’s Hope, that sold for a total of C$4.5 million. Bids ranged from C$1,425 to C$2,168/hectare. Two leases also were sold in the Horn River Basin, about 15 kilometers west of the Cabin Gas Field, for a total of more than C$837,620. Drilling licenses have primary terms of two, three or four years, depending on the location. Leases acquired at the Crown sale have primary terms of five or 10 years, also depending on the location. The next sale, scheduled for Oct. 21, 2009, is expected to offer 62 parcels covering 66,837 hectares. Results from the September sale are available at: www.em.gov.bc.ca/Subwebs/landsale/results/default.htm.