Timely

Chesapeake Energy Corp. has carved out a 94,000-acre tract in Ohio’s Stark and Portage counties to sell, land that represents roughly one-tenth of its leasehold in the Utica/Point Pleasant Shale.

Canadian Natural Resources — Canada’s second-largest independent natural gas producer and its largest producer of heavy oils — is considering the sale of about 250,000 net acres of its Montney land base, about one-quarter of its total Montney acreage, President Steve Laut said Thursday during an earnings conference call.

Because of the timing of the decrease in natural gas prices, and a “timely hedge book,” exploration and production (E&P) companies mostly have “coasted” through 1Q2012’s borrowing base season, but there may come a point when commercial banks may not continue to use a lending gas price deck well above strip prices, the energy team at Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week.

Because of the timing of the decrease in natural gas prices, and a “timely hedge book,” exploration and production (E&P) companies mostly have “coasted” through 1Q2012’s borrowing base season, according to energy analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. However, commercial banks may not continue to use a lending gas price deck well above strip prices, wrote Kevin Smith, John Freeman and Justin Albert in a note to clients.

A bill advancing through the Kansas Legislature would amend existing regulatory law and give the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) explicit authority over hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

The timely and widely available information on natural gas physical and financial transactions puts the gas market ahead of other commodities in transparency and efficiency, according to a study by research scholar and author William P. Albrecht. The study, publicized by the Natural Gas Supply Association, finds that the information available to the natural gas market “has grown to a level that is unrivaled by other commodities. The system of index price formation and discovery is unique to the U.S. natural gas market and contributes substantially to price transparency and competitive pricing.” In the physical market the regular surveys of prices at dozens of locations conducted by independent publishers follow guidelines established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Voluntary participants in the survey “follow equally rigorous FERC-established procedures for the reporting of this data. The integrity of this structure has been well established for over five years and pricing information is available within the market for more than 25 Bcf/d, an amount equal in size to one-third to one-half of total U.S. natural gas consumption,” Albrecht said. In the financial market, the Nymex and IntercontinentalExchange electronic platforms provide real time transparency for futures, options and a large number of swaps.

The timely and widely available information on natural gas physical and financial transactions puts the gas market ahead of other commodities in transparency and efficiency, according to a study by research scholar and author William P. Albrecht.

Because primary firm nominations through the Plymouth North Constraint Point for the Timely cycle of Thursday’s gas day were below the available capacity of 453,000 Dth/d, Northwest discontinued the Declared Deficiency Period for the point Thursday and said it would allow new nomination requests in the Evening and Intraday cycles up to 500,000 Dth/d. If primary firm nomination requests for Friday exceed 453,000 Dth/d, Northwest said, it will declare a new Deficiency Period for the remainder of the work, which it expects to complete that day. It plans to schedule up to Plymouth North’s design capacity of 553,000 Dth/d for Saturday.

In the long run — beyond 2010 — oil and natural gas prices should return to parity on a global basis, but the “most important and timely driver” will be the build-out of a global liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure, Raymond James & Associates Inc. energy analysts said. They warned in the short term: “beware North American gas names in 2008.”