Sustained

An unmanned natural gas platform owned by EOG Resources located off the coast of Galveston sustained heavy damage Friday after being struck by a freighter, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. EOG on Friday said the platform has been shut in for about a month since Hurricane Ivan and said its lines were secured.

An unmanned natural gas platform owned by EOG Resources located off the coast of Galveston sustained heavy damage Friday after being struck by a freighter, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. EOG on Friday said the platform has been shut in for about a month since Hurricane Ivan and said its lines were secured.

The biggest mining and processing complex in the Alberta oilsands, stung by the sustained strength in natural gas prices, has set out to pare down its reliance on gas. Gas is burning up 20% of Syncrude Canada’s operating budget and the value of the natural gas has reached the point where manufacturing it from oilsands bitumen could pay off, COO Jim Carter said.

The biggest mining and processing complex in the Alberta oilsands, stung by the sustained strength in natural gas prices, has set out to pare down its reliance on gas. Gas is burning up 20% of Syncrude Canada’s operating budget and the value of the natural gas has reached the point where manufacturing it from oilsands bitumen could pay off, COO Jim Carter said.

Hurricane Isabel, packing super-powerful maximum sustained winds of nearly 140 mph and pointing at shooting the gap between southern Florida and Cuba, was accorded most of the credit Wednesday for rallying cash prices and sustaining a futures run-up. Cash market movement ranged from flat to slightly more than a dime higher. Most of the smallest gains were clustered at California and Rocky Mountains/Pacific Northwest points, which tend to be least affected by hurricane disruptions of offshore supply.

Cash prices not only sustained their bullish streak that started last Thursday, but also built momentum Monday with gains in many cases even larger than those preceding the weekend. And the ride higher isn’t finished yet, according to some sources. “I expect a $6.75 on the screen tomorrow [Tuesday] and cash will also keep rising,” a marketer predicted.

Only six platforms, out of 800 subjected to the full force of Hurricane Lili in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month, sustained severe damage, according to a preliminary report by the Minerals Management Service (MMS).

Despite regional generation capacity additions and a preventative maintenance season, a sustained rally in the oil markets, combined with summer heat, could significantly strengthen power prices this summer, with the greatest impacts seen in such gas-dependent areas as NEPOOL (New England) and the Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC), Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) said in its latest “North American Power Market Watch.”

A decline in global and industrial demand for oil and natural gas is likely to drive commodity prices lower and keep them there for the near to intermediate term, according to an article in the latest edition of the Oil & Gas Insights newsletter from Fitch. As a result, the rating agency has lowered its price deck for oil and gas to $19.50 and $2.15, respectively, for 2002.