Surely

Attorneys for energy companies and landowners looking to advance shale development in New York State said Thursday morning’s proceedings in state appellate court went well and they expect to hear rulings on two key cases in six to eight weeks, or by mid-May.

Success at extracting natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) from North American shales has turned the conversation about NGLs and the U.S. petrochemical industry around 180 degrees. The abundance of feedstock and fuel coming from shale plays has caught the attention of the petrochemical industry, but still more confidence is needed before the real investment can begin.

The recession has surely driven a few people to dig under their couch cushions for loose change. In cash-strapped Kentucky one lawmaker has proposed that the state look under its own property for oil and gas deposits that might be extracted and monetized.

In one of what surely will be a long list of footnotes to the conclusion of the nation’s largest utility bankruptcy, PG&E Corp. announced late Monday that a creation of California’s energy crisis in late 2000, a “shareholder rights plan,” automatically expired with the emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the holding company’s utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

In what was surely expected to be another long weekend for Williams Cos. Inc., FERC said Friday it will send staffers to the company’s Tulsa headquarters on Wednesday to examine its California natural gas trading data. Meanwhile, after the market closed Friday, Moody’s Investor Services downgraded Williams to one notch above “junk” status, noting that the company is failing to generate enough cash despite its asset sales, and faces more business risks ahead.

Slowly but surely the faux summer that much of the eastern U.S.has experienced recently is turning into “real summer,” a marketernoted. But even that and a moderate gain by the August Henry Hubfutures contract were not enough to avert softening at most cashtrading points Thursday. Eastern declines tended to be minuscule,with a few points staying flat and few others falling by more than1-2 cents. But an easing of Southwest supply constraints andgenerally cooler weather in the West caused larger price drops inthe West, topped by a loss of several cents in the San Juan Basin.