Tighter

Supermajor and large independent producers generally enjoy strong liquidity positions, but tighter capital markets will crimp the purchasing power of smaller players at a time when some properties would likely become available at “distressed prices,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) analyst Thomas Watters wrote in a recent note.

Supermajor and large independent producers generally enjoy strong liquidity positions, but tighter capital markets will crimp the purchasing power of smaller players at a time when some properties would likely become available at “distressed prices,” Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) analyst Thomas Watters wrote in a recent note.

Electricity supplies will be tighter than last summer across much of North America, especially in Southern California and southwestern Connecticut, Rick Sergel, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), said last Monday as NERC issued a 75-page summer power assessment for North America.

If this winter ends up with a normal number of heating degree days (HDDs), natural gas storage should be tighter than last year but still well above 10-year norms, an energy consultant said last week. That realization seemed to resonate across the market as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a lower-than-expected 162 Bcf storage withdrawal on Thursday. January futures crashed $1.348 on Thursday and then collapsed another 64 cents Friday to end the week at $12.283.

With natural gas prices continuing to remain lofty, Americans should prepare themselves for higher utility bills this winter heating season, according to a new survey conducted by NUS Consulting Group. The annual survey found that the average price of natural gas nationwide increased by 4.3% from the period of September 2003 to September 2004.

Power companies would have to report changes in status related to their market-based rate authority within 30 days after such an event, according to a proposed rule issued by federal regulators last week. Utilities now face the very real possibility that they will no longer have the option of waiting for up to three years to report such status changes to FERC.

Amid projections of continued growth in natural gas demand and tighter supplies, a delay as short as two years in the construction of gas pipelines, storage facilities and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals will cost U.S. gas consumers more than $200 billion by 2020, according to a new study released by The INGAA Foundation Monday.

Amid projections of continued growth in natural gas demand and tighter supplies, a two-year delay in the construction of gas pipelines, storage facilities and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals will cost U.S. gas consumers more than $200 billion by 2020, according to a new study released by The INGAA Foundation Monday.

After the 37-cent jump in June natural gas futures prices last Monday to $6.231/MMBtu, Huntsman Chemical, the world’s largest privately held chemical company, renewed its call for “reforms” to the rules that govern gas trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.