Spreads

Statoil ASA on Thursday plans to begin delivering its U.S. natural gas produced in the Marcellus Shale to Canada to secure better prices.

The Obama administration on Wednesday denied the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline proposal on the recommendation of the U.S. State Department, saying at this time it is not in the U.S. national interest to build the 1,700-mile link from Alberta, Canada to the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Shale play activity has come on like gangbusters in recent years, greatly augmenting the overall supply picture. Some producers appear dubious about how sustainable even the highly competitive economics of shale drilling are during a period in which gas prices universally have slipped below $4 into the pipe, but many keep shifting rigs into their shale acreage anyway.

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.

A small but dramatic accident involving hazardous “sour” natural gas just outside the Alberta capital of Edmonton has left Canadian producers braced for more of their long and increasingly difficult campaign to keep access to a key supply source.

A small but dramatic accident involving hazardous “sour” natural gas just outside the Alberta capital of Edmonton has left Canadian producers braced for more of their long and increasingly difficult campaign to keep access to a key supply source.

Prices were still moving higher in most cases Tuesday, but generally at a slower pace than on the day before. Markets as disparate as citygates in Florida and the Northeast, San Juan Basin and the Pacific Northwest/Western Canada were still seeing double-digit gains of up to about a quarter, with Algonquin citygates averaging a little more than $5. But a majority of points ranged from flat to up about a dime, with gains of a nickel or less prevalent.

Severely depressed basis spreads in the Rocky Mountain region “scream the message of shut-in gas,” yet very few pipeline expansions have been put in place to solve the problem, noted energy consultant Mary Menino of Energy Security Analysis Inc. She predicts that export constraints will continue to plague the Rockies market as long as power generators and producers are unwilling or unable to sign firm agreements for pipeline transportation capacity on expansion projects.

After a day’s delay for some last-minute horse-trading, California regulators decided Tuesday to spread a $5.7 billion (3-cent/kW) rate increase to both moderate and large energy users to encourage power conservation going into the critical summer peak-demand period. The increase, which was okayed March 27, takes effect June 1 for Pacific Gas and Electric and June 3 for Southern California Edison with five “rate tiers” tied to consumption levels.