Spread

XTO Energy Inc. agreed to pay Linn Energy LLC $600 million to acquire Linn’s Appalachian Basin acreage, 152,000 net acres spread across the Marcellus Shale gas play in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of one of the shale plays that are spread across North America — majors, independents, privately owned producers, master limited partnerships (MLP) and even some of the neighborhoods that sit on top of them.

Everyone, it seems, wants a piece of one of the shale plays that are spread across North America — majors, independents, privately owned producers, master limited partnerships (MLP) and even some of the neighborhoods that sit on top of them.

After rumors that Nymex Holdings was on the “for sale” block spread like wildfire earlier this month (see NGI, June 18), speculators honed in on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)/Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) as the shortlist of potential suitors. While Nymex’s stock climbed 6% on the June 15 rumors to close at $142.12 on that day, the publicity from the news reports wasn’t welcomed by all parties.

After rumors that Nymex Holdings was on the “for sale” block spread like wildfire on Friday (see Daily GPI, June 18), speculators honed in on New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)/Euronext, Deutsche Boerse and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) as the shortlist of potential suitors. While Nymex’s stock climbed 6% Friday to close at $142.12, the publicity from the news reports wasn’t welcomed by all parties.

The January sales phenomenon — high volumes moved for reduced prices — spread to the natural gas trade between Canada and the United States this year, as shown by the latest records kept on the traffic by the National Energy Board (NEB).

The upward enthusiasm of Tuesday quickly dissipated Wednesday as traders reverted to tried and true seasonal spread trading. April futures fell 10.6 cents to $7.366 and May eased 9.7 cents to $7.491 as funds and managed accounts bought May contracts and at the same time sold April and also bought January and sold October.

Citing stronger margins for both its electric and natural gas utility operations spread around 10 western and midwestern states, Xcel Energy Tuesday reported net income in the second quarter of $98 million, or 24 cents/share, compared with $83 million, or 20 cents/share, for the same period in 2005.

With a 31.9-cent futures spike on Monday as support in addition to this week’s spread of power generation load due to higher temperatures, cash prices continued their run-up Tuesday.