Spotlight

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee put the spotlight on two important shale policy issues during its third and final forum on natural gas last Thursday: the FracFocus chemical registry and whether a middle ground can be found in the drawn-out dispute between states and the federal government over regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Proposed energy bills in the North Dakota legislature continue to hold the spotlight as state lawmakers move closer to their scheduled May adjournment. At least one proposal that could have had a negative impact on oil/natural gas operators was defeated last Friday.

Overall physical prices rose 9 cents Wednesday, but the Northeast continued to grab the spotlight as pipeline maintenance, forecasts of hot temperatures and nuclear outages all combined to send some next-day gas prices higher by more than a dollar. Eastern points were mixed. At the close of futures trading July had eased 2.8 cents to $2.517 and August had slipped 1.9 cents to $2.555. July crude oil tumbled $2.23 to $81.80/bbl.

Last week was the week for natural gas vehicles (NGV). Among the highlights that put the spotlight on the nascent industry:

The spotlight on commodity index funds and their impact on markets continues to burn brightly following a scathing report from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), acting ranking minority member. The report claims that commodity index traders, in the aggregate, have made such large purchases on the Chicago wheat futures market that they “have pushed up futures prices, disrupted the normal relationship between futures prices and cash prices for wheat, and caused farmers, grain elevators, grain processors, consumers and others to experience significant unwarranted costs and price risks.”

The spotlight on commodity index funds and their impact on markets continues to burn brightly following a scathing report from Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI), chairman of the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK), acting ranking minority member. The report claims that commodity index traders, in the aggregate, have made such large purchases on the Chicago wheat futures market that they “have pushed up futures prices, disrupted the normal relationship between futures prices and cash prices for wheat, and caused farmers, grain elevators, grain processors, consumers and others to experience significant unwarranted costs and price risks.”

As the congressional spotlight on commodities trading and regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grew brighter and hotter last week, it also narrowed its focus as legislators made clear they are almost exclusively interested in natural gas trading, the Amaranth case and the surrounding infrastructure, namely the CFTC, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

As the congressional spotlight on commodities trading and regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) grew brighter and hotter Thursday, it also narrowed its focus as legislators made clear they are almost exclusively interested in the natural gas market, the Amaranth case and the surrounding infrastructure, namely the CFTC, the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) and IntercontinentalExchange (ICE).

Apache Corp., which has been pretty quiet over the last year, on Thursday stepped into the spotlight, announcing it will spend $1 billion to acquire controlling interests in 28 oil and natural gas fields in the Permian Basin. The assets, purchased as part of a joint venture agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp., are expected to produce 9,000 b/d of oil and 18 MMcf/d of natural gas net to Apache this year.