Starts

While stimulating research on substitutes and new processes, natural gas prices are not yet high enough to make Alberta oilsands developers blink. Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. is going ahead on the next bitumen mega-mine in northern Alberta, while acknowledging gas will be a major continuing expense.

Costs are up by 40% and an aboriginal lawsuit clouds the outlook for the regulatory process, but strong supply needs and prices convinced the Mackenzie Gas Project to press ahead by filing construction applications last week.

The cash market stanched its bleeding somewhat as the July aftermarket got launched Wednesday, in the sense that most price declines were smaller than the day before and a few scattered points were flat to higher. The highly temperature-sensitive Cheyenne Hub and CIG even managed genuinely substantial rebounds of 20-25 cents or so due to Rockies-area weather starting to heat up.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking division of Barclays PLC, on Thursday said it recently completed its first U.S. power swap, a trade that represents the start of a material expansion of its commodities business in the Americas.

With some exceptions in the West, May pricing began Friday anywhere from flat to as much as about a quarter above April-ending levels. Cold weather that had been supporting Rockies prices through Thursday was due to yield to thermometer levels 5-20 degrees above average over the weekend, and thus that region saw most of the losses, topped by dips of about 30 and 15 cents at the highly temperature-sensitive CIG and Cheyenne Hub points respectively.

With Passover beginning Tuesday and Good Friday acting as a book-end, claims that this week could be “quiet” held true Monday as the natural gas futures May contract tested the $5.9 level early, but used the rest of the session to meander downward, closing at $5.804, less than a cent lower than Friday’s close.

As Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was cranking up on implementing a second iteration (Gas Accord II) of its transmission backbone unbundling late last week, a proposed decision from an administrative law judge at the California Public Utilities Commission was circulating to finally implement a comprehensive unbundling of the Southern California Gas Co. transmission pipeline/underground storage system in the southern half of the state.

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said it has started construction on its $30 million Cheyenne Market Center (CMC) project, which will include an expansion at its Huntsman storage field in Cheyenne County, NB, and the addition of six new compressor stations that will increase firm transportation capacity on its pipeline system between the Cheyenne Hub in Wells County, CO, and the Huntsman field. FERC issued a certificate for the project last month (see Daily GPI, Sept. 11).

Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP said it has started construction on its $30 million Cheyenne Market Center (CMC) hub expansion project, which will include adding capacity to its Huntsman storage field in Cheyenne County, NB.