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A House source indicated Thursday that a contentious provision may be struck from the Coast Guard reauthorization bill (HR 2830) that would require the Department of Homeland Security to sign off on liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.

Imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the fastest growing source of natural gas in the United States and will continue to be so in the years ahead, according to a FERC staff overview of the market last Thursday. However, some energy traders are concerned that LNG playing the savior roll is a stretch as they say cargoes destined for the United States are being diverted to other countries with higher natural gas prices.

Imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) is the fastest growing source of natural gas in the United States and will continue to be so in the years ahead, according to a FERC staff overview of the market Thursday.

Williams said late Tuesday it is considering an expansion of its facilities in Canada to process the significant new source of off-gas associated with Alberta’s growing oilsands production. The Tulsa-based company also will study whether to extract high-value ethane from current and future off-gas streams in the same producing area.

Although one source dismissed the latest surge of winter cold in northern market areas as “nothing to write home about,” temperatures are dropping low enough to ignite price increases at virtually all points Thursday. The previous day’s screen rebound of 19.1 cents provided additional support for cash quotes Thursday.

Increasing delays in the development of liquefaction facilities at the source of various global liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers are nothing to get alarmed about, and discussions of additional import supplies into the United States are continuing to take place, according to Sempra Energy CEO Donald Felsinger, speaking to analysts on a quarterly earnings conference call. Given the size and complexity of the deals, the delays are “normal and expected,” he said.

Increasing delays in the development of liquefaction facilities at the source of various global liquefied natural gas (LNG) suppliers are nothing to get alarmed about, and discussions of additional import supplies into the United States are continuing to take place, according to Sempra Energy CEO Donald Felsinger, speaking to analysts on a quarterly earnings conference call last Friday. Given the size and complexity of the deals, the delays are “normal and expected,” he said.

An NGI source who had said Thursday he would not be surprised to see carnage in the cash market Friday was not, in fact, surprised as prices took a dive across the board. The plunges were especially severe in the West, where Northwest’s ongoing constraint limiting Rockies access to southbound transportation (see Daily GPI, Sept. 14) combined with high-linepack OFOs by California’s two big distributors (see Transportation Notes) and the bearish pressures felt by the entire market to produce dollar-plus drops at many points.

Wind energy was the second largest source of new power after natural gas in the United States last year, but it still only represented a tiny portion of the overall domestic power supply. Still, with carbon-based fuels perhaps becoming an “increasing problem,” executives with several top utilities last week said they expect their wind energy businesses to continue to grow, backed by growing support for the clean — and virtually infinite — renewable.