Spread

Encana Corp. has close to 11.7 million net acres from which to pick and choose for development in North America’s onshore, but the Horn River Basin in British Columbia (BC) is drawing special attention, in part because of the promise it holds for natural gas demand in the oilsands, as well as promising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, company officials said Tuesday.

The current spread between U.S. and European/Asian natural gas prices supports export of liquefied domestic gas from the Lower 48, but it’s likely too uncertain to support the long-term, billion-dollar commitment needed to bring large-scale liquefaction to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to an analysis by Pan EurAsian Enterprises Inc. released last week.

A joint agency investigative report released last Wednesday on the Macondo well blowout and fatal explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig spread the blame for the disaster among BP plc, Transocean, Halliburton and Cameron International Corp., but BP got the brunt of it.

The current spread between U.S. and European/Asian natural gas prices supports export of liquefied domestic gas from the Lower 48, but it’s likely too uncertain to support the long-term, billion-dollar commitment needed to bring large-scale liquefaction to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to an analysis by Pan EurAsian Enterprises Inc. released Monday.

The current spread between U.S. and European/Asian natural gas prices supports export of liquefied domestic gas from the Lower 48, but it’s likely too uncertain to support the long-term, billion-dollar commitment needed to bring large-scale liquefaction to the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to an analysis by Pan EurAsian Enterprises Inc. released Monday.

With a major pre-summer heat wave solidly entrenched from the South through the Midwest and threatening to spread into the Northeast — not to mention traders eyeing the prospects of a Caribbean low-pressure area that could become a tropical depression as it moves toward the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) — prices rose at nearly all points Monday.

Even with the increasingly brighter domestic gas supply picture, the spread of natural gas vehicles (NGV) still faces daunting market and regulatory barriers, according to a panel discussion Thursday sponsored by the National Regulatory Research Institute (NRRI). Speakers concentrated on what state regulators “should know and ask.”

Given its strong dependence on natural gas, it is surprising that California has nearly 540 MW of coal-fired electric generation capacity spread over 15 facilities, all of which are under pressure in the midst of the state’s climate change mitigation efforts to stop operations or convert to clean fuels.

Encana Corp. now holds close to 12.7 million net acres of natural gas potential spread across North America, but it continues to look for the next big play — and that may be just around the corner, CEO Randy Eresman said Thursday.