Southwest

Southwest Gas said it declared a “hold to burn notice” Wednesday due to scheduled system maintenance on Kern River.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its Southwest Regional Partnership (SWP) are testing a way to permanently store carbon dioxide (CO2) and simultaneously recover natural gas in a large coalbed methane (CBM) area in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico.

A group led by The Conservation Fund has struck a deal to permanently protect 1,042 acres of sage grouse habitat on a working cattle ranch southwest of Daniel, WY, and improve habitat conditions on more than 25,000 acres of adjacent land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the fund said Wednesday.

A group led by The Conservation Fund has struck a deal to permanently protect 1,042 acres of sage grouse habitat on a working cattle ranch southwest of Daniel, WY, and improve habitat conditions on more than 25,000 acres of adjacent land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the fund said last week.

Southern California Gas did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Tuesday.

With Hurricane Dean continuing to recede as a potential threat to U.S. offshore production, cooling load remaining sparse outside the South and Southwest and a near-dollar plunge by September futures the day before serving as highly negative guidance, the cash market continued to fall by mostly large amounts at all points Tuesday.

Forecasts of rising heat levels across much of the East, combined with existing triple-digit high temperatures in the Southwest and parts of the Upper Plains plus good prior-trading day futures support, led to price spikes at all points Monday except for a few in the Rockies that were flat to nearly 20 cents lower. Most Northeast citygates saw dollar-plus increases, although regional highs in the 90s won’t be coming along until around midweek or later.

Forecasts of Tuesday highs in the 80s throughout most of the South and even hotter weather in the desert Southwest, along with the previous Friday’s 17.3-cent gain by June futures, paved the way for higher prices at nearly all points Monday. Still-robust storage injection demand and the return of industrial load from its weekend hiatus also contributed to Monday’s overall firmness.

The 555-mile Sabine River forms part of the boundary between Texas and Louisiana and has sometimes been called the dividing line between the Old South and the New Southwest. But for gas producers in Texas the river represents a hurdle on the way to eastern and northeastern markets, a basis constraint point soon to be eroded by the market forces that are inspiring a bevy of west-to-east pipeline projects in the region.