Road

Exploration and production (E&P) companies take different routes in their drive to add value, and their road maps may follow mergers and acquisitions, organic growth, diversification or a simple focus on one region. However, what sets the winners apart is how well they execute their strategies and how quickly they evolve when times change, a John S. Herold equity analyst said Thursday.

About seven lines of text added by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) to the recently enacted Transportation Equity Act erects a major road block in front of the proposed Weaver’s Cove LNG import terminal in Fall River, MA. The new law makes it illegal for the Brightman Street Bridge, connecting Fall River and Somerset, MA, to be demolished to allow LNG cargo traffic up the Taunton River to the terminal.

Choosing to travel their own road Wednesday, July natural gas futures dismissed August crude’s near $1.00 decline and settled 3.2 cents lower at $7.442. Trading was relatively quiet as the prompt month kept within a thin range from $7.39 to $7.53 and traders noted that there did not seem to be any motivation in either direction.

The Quoddy Bay liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Maine apparently still has some life left despite hitting a major road block in March when the Town of Perry rejected a terminal location on Gleason Cove (see Daily GPI, March 30). Project planners have negotiated a new deal with the Passamaquoddy Native American tribe for an alternative site on tribal land at a place called Split Rock on the Pleasant Point reservation.

Tired of exploring the upper end of the range during the prior two sessions only to fail, natural gas futures traders opted to take the low road instead on Friday. Trading within a minimalist $6.02 to $6.115 range, March natural gas futures were actually able to break the two-day streak of settling relatively unchanged. The prompt month settled at $6.093, down 6.7 cents on the session and less than a cent lower than the previous week’s $6.096 close.

With the middle-of-the-road natural gas storage report unable to exert any influence on the natural gas futures market, the newly-minted prompt month was left with no other choice than to follow big brother crude’s lead lower in Thursday trading.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) may not only fill the gas supply gap, but might end up displacing indigenous resources down the road if enough projects can overcome local opposition and line up the required financing for construction, according to several analysts speaking at the GasMart conference in Denver on Tuesday.

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) may not only fill the gas supply gap, but might end up displacing indigenous resources down the road…if enough projects can overcome local opposition and line of the required financing for construction, according to several analysts speaking at the GasMart conference in Denver on Tuesday.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s “rules of the road,” designed to maintain market integrity and eliminate manipulation (Order 644), instead will put a wrench in the works of efficient market operations, a number of market participants said in asking the Commission for further clarifications.