Sufficient

Oneok Partners LP plans to invest $1.5-1.8 billion to build a 1,300-mile crude oil pipeline with capacity to transport 200,000 b/d of light sweet crude from the Bakken Shale in the Williston Basin in North Dakota to the Cushing, OK, crude oil market hub, the partnership said Monday.

With most areas returning to seasonal or warmer-than-normal temperatures, the decline in heating load was sufficient to cause lower prices at all but three points Thursday. The relatively rare substantive gain of 10.3 cents by February futures a day earlier obviously had little impact in stanching the continued bleeding of cash prices.

Thursday’s price driver was the release of government inventory figures that came in only slightly bearish but were sufficient to send February futures nearly a dime lower.

Northwest is reducing the available capacity at the Spokane Mead throughput point to 130,000 Dth/d effective Friday, saying demand in the Spokane, WA, area is not sufficient for it to schedule full design capacity at Starr Road. “This reduction is necessary to ensure operational reliability on the Spokane Lateral,” the pipeline said. “If necessary, Northwest will also cut alternate gas at other points on the lateral to maintain operational integrity. As the weather turns colder and the Spokane area can effectively burn the gas being nominated at Starr Road, Northwest will return all points on the lateral to design capacity.”

AltaGas Ltd. has agreed to buy Vancouver-based Pacific Northern Gas Ltd. (PNG) for C$36.75/share (approximately C$230 million), a 20% premium based on the C$30.50 Oct. 28 closing price for PNG shares, the Calgary-based company said.

Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin is capable “given sufficient continued investments” of supplying the region’s gas needs until 2018-2020 at a price below that of supply alternatives being considered, according to a new study.

July natural gas futures fell in active trading Monday as traders viewed the market as not having sufficient trending characteristics and others were unmoved by early heat. At the close July had fallen 11.1 cents to $4.646 and August had dropped 11.1 cents as well to $4.678. July crude oil tumbled $1.99 to $97.30/bbl.

Shale development currently accounts for about half of the total rigs targeting natural gas development in the United States, a top executive with ICF International said.

El Paso canceled a warning Thursday of a possible Strained Operating Condition because of system drafting, saying customer response was sufficient to increase its linepack to acceptable levels.