Sidelines

The head of a major Pennsylvania water utility sees a two-fer in convincing Marcellus Shale operators to replace trucks with pipelines to supply water for fracking, thereby saving roads and supplying piped water to rural customers.

Royal Dutch Shell plc won’t be sitting on the sidelines as others attempt to turn North America into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting hub, CFO Simon Henry said Thursday. Shell not only plans to join a growing list of competitors, but it also is considering projects to turn natural gas into motor fuels and chemicals, he said.

Royal Dutch Shell plc won’t be sitting on the sidelines as others attempt to turn North America into a liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting hub, CFO Simon Henry said Thursday. Shell not only plans to join a growing list of competitors, but it also is considering projects to turn natural gas into motor fuels and chemicals, he said.

May natural gas futures continued to retreat Tuesday as traders were inclined to sit on the sidelines and await Thursday’s Department of Energy (DOE) report on inventories. Some see prices eventually reaching $4.00. At the close May had fallen 5.8 cents to $4.231 and June skidded 5.9 cents to $4.304. May crude oil shed 13 cents to $108.34/bbl.

Natural gas futures closed slightly higher Tuesday as traders were content to remain on the sidelines and avoid the free-falling petroleum and equity markets. June natural gas futures rose 1.3 cents to $4.013 and July added a meager 0.4 cents to $4.133. June crude oil tumbled $3.45 to $82.74, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average spiraled lower 225 points to 10,926 largely on debt concerns in Greece.

Despite precipitous drops in the petroleum futures sector, natural gas future trading was fairly quiet Tuesday as traders appeared to be on the sidelines waiting for the petroleum markets to adjust to last week’s natural gas futures declines. After trading between $4.900 and $5.120, October natural gas ended up closing at $5.006, up 6.4 cents on the day.

After sitting on the sidelines Friday to plot their next move, traders on Monday morning pushed April natural gas futures significantly higher, breaking through the psychological $7 level without flinching and recording a 36.6-cent gain (5.4% increase) on the day to settle at $7.138.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.