Stores

ExxonMobil Corp. fell from its No. 1 position on the Fortune 500 of top revenue earners last year to No. 2 behind Wal-Mart Stores, Fortune reported on Monday.

Gas-to-coal switching, which has drained some of the excess domestic gas stores, will tell the tale about 2013 natural gas prices, with gas expected to continue to gain in the first six months, while coal regains some of its losses in the second half of the year, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc.

Gas-to-coal switching, which has drained some of the excess domestic gas stores, will tell the tale about 2013 natural gas prices, with gas expected to continue to gain in the first six months, while coal regains some of its losses in the second half of the year, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc.

It didn’t take that long for the horizontal drilling technology and hydraulic fracturing stimulation technique that unlocked huge stores of unconventional natural gas to be transferred to the oil patch, and now oily producers face as bleak a future for prices and activity as their gassy brethren, energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week.

It didn’t take that long for the horizontal drilling technology and hydraulic fracturing stimulation technique that unlocked huge stores of unconventional natural gas to be transferred to the oil patch, and now oily producers face as bleak a future for prices and activity as their gassy brethren, energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision that a distributor could owe county taxes on natural gas that it stores temporarily along the interstate gas pipeline system. Kansas City, MO-based Missouri Gas Energy (MGE), a subsidiary of Southern Union, challenged the Oklahoma Supreme Court decision, which held that MGE owed Woods County, OK, taxes for gas stored in the North Hopeton storage facility in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Before the high court, MGE argued that it was immune to the taxation under the the Commerce Clause. Millions of dollars were at stake in the case. Harriet Miers, former White House counsel and former President George W. Bush’s one-time nominee for the Supreme Court, filed the petition for certiorari in 2009 on behalf of MGE (see NGI, Oct. 19, 2009). At issue in the case was whether states and local governments have the power to tax a distributor’s natural gas that is stored temporarily in an interstate pipeline system.

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday upheld a lower court’s decision that a distributor could owe county taxes on natural gas that it stores temporarily along the interstate gas pipeline system.

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday upheld a lower court’s decision that a distributor could owe county taxes on natural gas that it stores temporarily along the interstate gas pipeline system.

Natural gas buyers, from metals companies to food and paper processing conglomerates, power generators and some of the largest chain stores, all will be attending the GasMart 2007 conference hosted by Intelligence Press Inc. (IPI) in the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place Hotel in downtown Chicago, May 9-11. This 21st annual event features an all-new focus on its exclusive Market Network Center where buyers and sellers meet.