Story

The story, “No Plans to Slow North American Gas Development, Says ExxonMobil Exec,” (see Daily GPI, Sept. 10), misquoted Senior Vice President Mark W. Albers, who was a keynote speaker at the Barclays Capital 2009 CEO Energy/Power Conference in New York City. Albers did not say “North American unconventional gas production will remain steady.” Rather, Albers said, “North American natural gas production will remain steady, with conventional production decline offset by increases in tight gas and shale gas.” NGI regrets the error.

The September natural gas futures contract turned in its second consecutive “do nothing” day on Wednesday, leaving some market watchers to wonder whether traders were saving their strength for a blitz of action on the contract’s expiration Thursday. The prompt-month contract ended up closing the regular session at $2.910, up 2.8 cents from Tuesday’s close.

The story related time and again by natural gas producers in their 2Q2009 earnings presentations has been the same at both large and small natural gas-weighted independents: lower costs and hedging cushioned the impact of low prices, but better technology continues to boost output.

The story related time and again by natural gas producers in their 2Q2009 earnings presentations has been the same at both large and small natural gas-weighted independents: lower costs and hedging cushioned the impact of low prices, but better technology continues to boost output.

Prior to an explosion and fire around midday at the DCP Midstream East Texas Plant at the Carthage Hub (see related story), Gulf South said it had been notified Wednesday by DCP Midstream that a gas quality issue discovered during maintenance begun Tuesday by Gulf South (see Daily GPI, Feb. 6) would require the continued shut-in of two plant-related points. In a related note, TGT said DCP Midstream had called Wednesday to say their Champlin interconnect was being shut in until further notice “due to operational issues at their plant.”

On the heels of Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s spending cutbacks over the next two years (see related story), Raymond James & Associates Inc. Monday once again cut its projected U.S. rig count, predicting a reduction of 41%, or 850, for 2009.

Amid generally upbeat financial results reported for the third quarter Monday (see related story), Sempra Energy divulged that its Liberty Gas Storage Project in Louisiana may have to be shelved if it can’t find an engineering solution to cavern development problems. Separately, cost increases and delays are plaguing two other major gas and power projects. CEO Don Felsinger said Liberty in a worst case scenario might have to be written off at about $65 million to cover Sempra’s share of the salt dome storage project.

As it became more evident Wednesday that Hurricane Gustav left the energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico intact (see related story), October natural gas futures continued to press the downside, coming within a couple of pennies of breaking below $7. The prompt-month contract recorded a low of $7.028 before rebounding to close out Wednesday’s regular session at $7.264, up less than a penny from Tuesday’s finish.

With Hurricane Dolly holding its anticipated course and impacting Texas near the Mexico border Wednesday afternoon (see related story), traders resumed their pounding on the energies Wednesday as front-month natural gas futures closed below $10 for the first time since April 11.