Season

Sunoco Logistic Partners LP is holding a binding open season for a third Mariner East pipeline to deliver Appalachian natural gas liquids (NGL) to its Marcus Hook Industrial Complex on the Delaware River south of Philadelphia.

The first half of the 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season has produced only three named storms — none of them having any significant impact on the U.S. energy industry — and forecasters at Weather Services International (WSI) don’t expect the second half to be much worse.

With almost 10 weeks of the 2014 Atlantic hurricane season gone by and only two named storms having formed, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday said it is more likely than ever that tropical activity this year will remain below normal.

Coming off a successful nonbinding open season, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners LP is holding a binding open season for its Northern Supply Access expansion of Texas Gas Transmission, a project that would provide for receipts of Marcellus and Utica shale gas seeking markets in the Southeast and Gulf Coast.

Weather Services International (WSI) is sticking to its forecast of a mild 2014 Atlantic hurricane season, saying Tuesday that an El Nino event and cooler waters in the Atlantic Ocean will suppress tropical storm activity.

June natural gas is expected to open a penny higher Wednesday morning at $4.56 as traders reassess recent weather forecasts and balance those against expectations of near-term storage injections that are likely to soften the market. Overnight oil markets rose.

The 2014 Atlantic Hurricane season is likely to be less active than normal, producing fewer powerful storms than average and bringing below-normal risk to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Caribbean Sea, according to an early forecast from Houston-based ImpactWeather.

With the country’s “extraordinary winter for natural gas consumption” winding down, thoughts of gas market players have been on what’s left in gas storage caverns and what it will take to refill them in time for winter 2014-2015.

A unit of Bismarck, ND-based MDU Resources on Thursday launched an open season for a proposed $650 million natural gas transmission pipeline connecting plentiful Bakken Shale supplies to markets in the Great Lakes. Planning for the 375-mile pipeline is under way at MDU’s WBI Energy Inc.