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The Town Board of Onondaga, NY, voted Monday to extend its moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for three months, or until the board passes an ordinance either allowing or prohibiting the practice.

The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) cut rates for the three major investor-owned natural gas utilities in the state, responding to the continuing low wholesale prices for gas. The new rates take effect Thursday. Portland, OR-based NW Natural, which separately received a small general rate hike, its first in 10 years (see Daily GPI, Oct. 31), will cut its rates by 6.9%, or about $4.36/month for a typical residential customer. Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities customers will see rates drop 7.7%, or on average about $4.78/month for residential customers. MDU Resources Group’s Kennewick, WA-based Cascade Natural Gas Corp. rates were cut 17.3%, or a decrease on average of $9.79/month for a residential customer. A purchased gas adjustment allows the PUC to have the gas utilities adjust their rates up or down annually to reflect changes in the average price of gas supplies the utilities purchase on the interstate market.

Temperatures over the next three months should average above normal across most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, a weather pattern that would keep a lid on natural gas consumption in population centers in the Northeast, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Temperatures over the next three months should average above normal across most of the eastern two-thirds of the United States, a weather pattern that would keep a lid on natural gas consumption in population centers in the Northeast, according to forecasters at Andover, MA-based Weather Services International (WSI).

Following a turbulent three-year period in which offshore drilling companies were hit by the impacts of the financial crisis and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) drilling moratorium, the sector is showing signs of “recovery and reinvestment,” in large part because of rising day rates and demand for deepwater drilling services, according to IHS Inc.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Wednesday approved a “land-into-trust” application submitted by the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota to build the first U.S. refinery in decades — in the heart of the Bakken shale formation.

Barclays Capital has lifted its natural gas price forecast for the final three months of this year to $3.35/MMBtu, up from $3.00. Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BofA) last week also raised its 2013 gas price forecast.

Barclays Capital has lifted its natural gas price forecast for the final three months of this year to $3.35/MMBtu, up from $3.00.

Marathon Petroleum Corp. agreed to pay $598 million plus inventories estimated at $1.2 billion for BP plc’s 451,000 b/d Texas City, TX, refinery, three instrastate natural gas liquids pipelines originating at the refinery, an allocation of BP’s Colonial Pipeline Co. shipper history, four terminals, retail marketing contract assignments for about 1,200 branded sites and a 1,040 MW cogeneration facility. The agreement contains an earnout provision under which Marathon could pay up to an additional $700 million over six years, subject to certain conditions. The acquisition is expected to be funded with cash on hand and is anticipated to close early in 2013. The deal continues BP’s plan to sell assets to shore up its share price and help fund a $20 billion trust fund set up following the April 2010 Macondo well blowout in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) (see Daily GPI, Oct. 26, 2011). Last month Plains Exploration & Production Co. said it would pay BP $5.55 billion for deepwater GOM oil and gas properties (see Daily GPI, Sept. 11).