Substantial

Oneok Inc. said Tuesday it will sell a substantial segment of its natural gas gathering and processing assets for $528 million to Eagle Rock Energy, a privately held company based in Houston. The properties in the Texas Panhandle include six gas processing plants with 150 MMcf/d of capacity and current average throughput of 70%, 3,700 miles of gas gathering lines, and estimated natural gas liquids production of 13,500 bbl/d.

Dennis’ early strength led to substantial evacuations and production shut ins in the densest production area of the Gulf, but producers reported that they were rapidly repopulating facilities and bringing supply back online Tuesday. Cumulative gas production shut in due to Hurricane Dennis rose to 22.4 Bcf, the Minerals Management Service (MMS) reported. However, daily shut-ins fell to 4.3 Bcf/d based on the reports of 55 companies as of 11 a.m. CDT on Tuesday.

Buoyed by two previous days of substantial screen strength and also by forecasts of hotter weather returning to northern and western market areas by the time the current workweek has begun, weekend prices moved higher at a large majority of points Friday. Nearly all of the declines — mostly small but reaching a quarter in one case — occurred in the West, but the region also recorded several sizeable advances.

Although there’s a substantial gas storage surplus (458 Bcf versus 10-year norms) and the North American natural gas production decline of the last few years has ended, Henry Hub gas prices are unlikely to fall very far this year and should average about $6.50, analyst Stephen Smith said in his Monthly Energy Outlook for April.

Buoyed by Tuesday’s expiration-day screen spike of 32.4 cents and almost nothing else, prices for end-of-March flows saw substantial gains Wednesday. Increases were fairly consistent and spread evenly through all market areas in ranging from a little less than 20 cents to nearly 35 cents in nearly all cases (the exception was a rise of a little more than a dime by OGT in the Midcontinent).

The rapid growth of renewable energy through state renewable portfolio standards and other actions nationwide will have a substantial negative impact on natural gas demand and prices, according to a new report by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The rapid growth of renewable energy through state renewable portfolio standards and other actions nationwide will have a substantial negative impact on natural gas demand and prices, according to a new report by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

About 30 major regulatory and environmental impediments to natural gas production have taken substantial amounts of supply off the market at a time of rapidly increasing gas demand, according to a new report titled “Environmental Policy and Regulatory Constraints to Natural Gas Production” by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

About 30 major regulatory and environmental impediments to natural gas production have taken substantial amounts of supply off the market at a time of rapidly increasing gas demand, according to a new report titled “Environmental Policy and Regulatory Constraints to Natural Gas Production” by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.