Ultimately

One of Colorado’s richest local jurisdictions, Weld County, with extensive oil/natural gas and agricultural operations, in June launched discussions with a number of other counties in the northeastern part of the state about a move to secede and form a new state.

The market will ultimately cap the amount of natural gas that the United States exports, not policymakers, said an executive with CIBC World Markets at the Energy Information Administration’s Energy Conference Tuesday in Washington, DC. Hypothetically, “if we were to see Henry Hub prices in the $5.00-7.00/Mcf range, it would make incremental [liquefied natural gas export] projects difficult,” said CIBC World’s head of commodity strategy Katherine Spector. CIBC is a unit of the Canadian Bank of Commerce. “There is a point that this [exports] will not make economic sense…I don’t know what the magic number is.” When natural gas in Asia is priced at $16.00, and gas at Henry Hub is $2.00-3.00, “it’s a no brainer.”

Natural Resource Partners LP (NRP) is buying nonoperated working interests in Bakken/Three Forks producing oil and gas properties from Abraxas Petroleum Corp. for $35.3 million in cash, marking its entry into the Bakken Shale.

The United States has completed its bilateral consultations with Japan for the country’s membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). If ultimately approved, membership is seen as potentially aiding U.S. liquefied natural gas to Japan (see Daily GPI, March 19). “Since November 2011, the United States has been engaged in consultations with Japan focused on Japan’s readiness to meet the TPP’s high standards for liberalizing trade and investment, and to address specific bilateral issues of concern in the automotive and insurance sectors, as well as other Japanese non-tariff measures,” said Acting U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis. “…[W]e are pleased to welcome Japan’s participation in the TPP negotiations pending a consensus agreement among the current TPP members and the completion of our respective domestic processes.” Through the TPP, the United States and 10 Asia-Pacific countries are seeking to negotiate a next-generation, regional trade agreement.

The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) did not give sufficient attention to the potential environmental impact from hydraulic fracturing (fracking) when it issued oil/gas leases for 2,500 acres two years ago, a judge in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, in San Jose ruled on Monday.

The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) ended three days of hearings in Denver Wednesday as it drew closer to finalizing new setback requirements for oil and natural gas wells, but it still fell short of finishing the unpopular and complex task.

Colorado producers on Friday raised the ante in their concerns about a state agency’s efforts to establish new rules on setbacks for oil and natural gas drilling operators, gaining support from local business groups for a fact sheet citing the economic benefits that resource production brings to the state.

A Texas landowner who three weeks ago signed an easement agreement with TransCanada Corp. on a part of its Keystone XL oil pipeline project won a county court-ordered temporary restraining order on part of the Keystone southern portion for which work is ongoing in three segments between Cushing, OK, and the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

With production out of the nation’s shale plays holding down natural gas prices and electricity generation becoming ever more dependent on inexpensive gas, coordination between the two markets will continue to be a top priority and a series of other issues need to be resolved, according to panelists at the Energy Bar Association (EBA) Mid-Year conference in Washington, DC, Friday.