Stability

ExxonMobil Corp.’s quest to remain the biggest operator in the Ardmore Basin’s Woodford Shale remains on track after the super major agreed to pay $147.5 million to buy the bulk of BNK Petroleum Inc.’s leasehold in the Tishomingo Field.

Natural gas futures remained an uncharacteristic beacon of stability and suffered only a modest setback as other markets cascaded lower in volatile trading. At the close September natural gas had retreated 0.6 cent to $3.935 and October gave up just 0.5 cent to $3.957. November through June 2012 posted modest gains. By contrast the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 635 points to 10,810 and September crude oil tumbled $5.57 to $81.31/bbl. Gold rose $70 to $1,722/oz, a record, and the yield on 10-year treasuries zoomed 20 basis points to 2.37%, the highest one-day move since May 2009.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council last Tuesday adopted an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) seeking to designate financial market utilities (FMU), including certain clearinghouses, as systemically important.

The Financial Stability Oversight Council Tuesday adopted an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) seeking to designate financial market utilities (FMU), including certain clearinghouses, as systemically important.

Low natural gas prices could stifle the long-awaited nuclear renaissance, according to analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P). Without federal loan guarantees, merchant nuclear new builds will be abandoned, they said in a new report.

Signs of economic stability surfaced at the end of March, but the Gulf of Mexico oil spill followed less than a month later followed by “less than positive” consumer and business confidence reports, which created “considerable uncertainty for the oil and gas industry,” according to a new report by Ernst & Young LLP.

Signs of economic stability surfaced at the end of March, but the Gulf of Mexico oil spill followed less than a month later followed by “less than positive” consumer and business confidence reports, which created “considerable uncertainty for the oil and gas industry,” according to a new report by Ernst & Young LLP.

But stability should be long term, and volatility will be confined to relatively short-lived bursts.

Projecting continued stability and downward movement in wholesale prices, Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) proposed a 13% drop in its retail natural gas utility rates Thursday in a filing with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. PSE wants to make the rate cut effective Oct. 1. In a separate filing the utility also asked to lower a low-income surcharge.