Structures

The different structures of the natural gas and power markets, disparate scheduling cycles and interstate natural gas pipeline constraints are the chief barriers to the efficient coordination of the two markets in the Northeast, regulators and industry officials said Monday.

A legislative panel in Ohio has cleared four rules proposed by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR), which include new requirements for the permitting and construction of oil and natural gas wells and rules governing hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) experienced a rupture and explosion at about 8:45 a.m. EST Wednesday in a rural part of southeastern Ohio. One person was treated for respiratory symptoms and two structures were damaged.

A Pennsylvania state Senate committee passed amended impact fee legislation on Monday that returned an impact fee to the bill, added environmental safeguards and changed the way the bill would govern local ordinances over oil and gas drilling.

Three workers were burned when a fire broke out at a Chesapeake Energy Corp. drilling site in Washington County, PA, on Wednesday night.

The United States has become a “surplus natural gas producing country essentially forever” because of shale gas, Credit Suisse analyst Edward Morse said recently.

CNX Gas Corp.’s first horizontal well in the Marcellus Shale is producing at a rate of 6.5 MMcf/d, which sets a company record for daily output. The production rate is among the highest reported to date by any producer operating in the Appalachian Basin play. The CNX well, located in Green County, PA, began flowing on Oct. 2 at an initial rate of 1.2 MMcf/d and 4,000 pounds/square inch (psi) of backpressure. The backpressure gradually was reduced, which allowed daily production to increase to about 4 MMcf/d until early in December, when newly installed surface equipment enabled the well to flow at the record rate. The backpressure was being held at 2,640 psi. Cumulative production from the well prior to the record rate achieved was 106 MMcf. The Marcellus well was drilled to a vertical depth of 8,140 feet in the Huntersville Chert, penetrating 83 vertical feet of shale. CNX holds a 100% working stake in the well and also has 100% net revenue interest. The Pittsburgh-based independent is drilling its second vertical Marcellus Shale well, which would be hydraulically fractured using second and third horizontal wells.

North American exploration and production (E&P) companies’ cost structures and current share prices suggest that natural gas prices need to be more than $8/Mcf and oil has to be more than $70/bbl to deliver a market return on equity capital, according to an analysis by SunTrust Robinson Humphrey/the Gerdes Group (STRH).

Increased organic capital spending, greater commodity price volatility, changing ownership structures and developing regulatory policy are expected to continue to have an impact on credit ratings in the midstream energy sector for the remainder of 2006 and into 2007, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Thursday in a new industry “report card.”