Sector

Despite predictions that the oil and gas industry would consolidate in the wake of low commodity prices, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity during the first half of 2016 fell to levels not seen since 2008-09, according to a report by Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions.

Moody’s Investors Service’s liquidity stress index (LSI) for oil and gas rose to 19.6% in December from 19.3% in November as the rout in oil prices continued to take a toll on the industry.

A few onshore explorers have signaled they plan to ramp up in a few select locations in the next couple of months, but that's the exception rather than the rule, with more pain for the sector still to come, an analyst said this week.

A few onshore explorers have signaled they plan to ramp up in a few select locations in the next couple of months, but that’s the exception rather than the rule, with more pain for the sector still to come, an analyst said this week.

Houston-based independent Southwestern Energy Co., which only develops natural gas in North America, is one of the initial partners in a multinational coalition of producers that Tuesday committed to slash methane emissions as part of a strategy to tackle climate change by the United Nations (UN).

Omaha, NB-based independent energy provider Tenaska said Thursday it is launching a marketing/development company, Tenaska NG Fuels LLC (TNG Fuels), to provide natural gas for the transportation and industrial sectors, both compressed natural (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG).

Mexico is greatly expanding its natural gas pipeline and gas-fired power infrastructure while in the upstream sector, state-controlled Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) focuses on more-lucrative oil and allows non-associated gas production to dwindle. Increasingly, it will be gas from U.S. shales that comes to the country’s rescue.

Based on projections of flat natural gas demand, record production and unseasonably warm weather, natural gas prices this winter are expected to be flat compared with a year ago, when Henry Hub prices averaged $3.47/MMBtu, according to the Natural Gas Supply Association’s (NGSA) 13th Annual Winter Outlook.

In a broader global energy picture that is a “smorgasbord of fragmented pieces,” the United States is headed for a return to gas-on-gas competition among shale-dominated natural gas basins, according to Jim Duncan, ConocoPhillips chief analyst and commodity market strategist in Houston.