Tensions

As tensions between Iran and the western world increase, the country’s threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz weighs increasingly on energy markets. While most of the attention has focused on what a closure would mean for oil transport, analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week on a percentage basis, the implications would be greater for liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.

As tensions between Iran and the western world increase, the country’s threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz weighs increasingly on energy markets. While most of the attention has focused on what a closure would mean for oil transport, analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday on a percentage basis, the implications would be greater for liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.

With political tensions and diminishing onshore reserves around the world, the deepwater is “virtually the only place” where giant oil and natural gas fields will be found in the future, the managing director of UK-based Douglas-Westwood told a Houston audience Thursday.

With political tensions and diminishing onshore reserves around the world, the deepwater is “virtually the only place” where giant oil and natural gas fields will be found in the future, the managing director of UK-based Douglas-Westwood told a Houston audience Thursday.

Controversy, fueled by increasing political tensions, heated up last week about a group of private sector consultants brought on the state payroll by Gov. Gray Davis in the past six months to help California wrestle with its electricity problems, including the state’s role in buying bulk wholesale power.

Amid easing tensions in the Middle East and a price pullback inthe nearby crude oil trading pit, natural gas futures were softerFriday, as traders elected to take profits following last week’salmost 80-cent rally. The November contract finished at $5.537,down 9.3 cents on the day, and 24.3 cents off Thursday’s pricepeak.