Undertaking

While natural gas prices have recovered to nearly $4/MMBtu, the National Energy Board (NEB) said Thursday that Canadian natural gas producers are undertaking minimal natural gas drilling as current prices do not cover the full costs of developing most natural gas prospects and U.S. shale development continues to displace Canadian gas exports.

While natural gas prices have recovered to nearly $4.00/MMBtu, the National Energy Board (NEB) Thursday said Canadian gas producers are undertaking minimal drilling activity, as current prices do not cover the full costs of developing most prospects.

With U.S. natural gas prices still the “great uncertainty,” Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) is undertaking a cost-cutting program designed to increase margin while it continues to emphasize oil production growth over natural gas in its domestic U.S. plays, CEO Steve Chazen said Thursday during a 4Q2012 conference call. He reported lower quarter-over-quarter results related to a one-time Midcontinent natural gas assets impairment charge.

With U.S. natural gas prices still the “great uncertainty,” Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. (Oxy) is undertaking a cost-cutting program designed to increase margin while it continues to emphasize oil production growth over gas in its domestic U.S. plays, CEO Steve Chazen said Thursday.

After two years of study, Australian oil and gas exploration and production company AWE Ltd. said it has identified targets within the Perth Basin Shale play that rival the characteristics of some of the productive natural gas shales within the United States, with one interval — the Carynginia Shale — alone holding a gross of 13-20 Tcf in place within AWE’s acreage.

California regulators decided Thursday they will not try to establish a separate set of rules for utilities to file in undertaking supply contracts involving liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports. It was agreed that LNG imports should compete “head-to-head” with domestic gas supplies, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) is undertaking an initiative to develop sample legislation that would encourage regional collaboration among state utility commissions on issues tied to the siting of transmission lines, Matthew Brown, energy program director at the NCSL, said.

Because of the significance of the undertaking, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week extended the deadline for the energy industry to submit comments on what makes up “critical energy infrastructure” — an exercise that could considerably limit public access in the future to information about natural gas, electric, crude oil and hydroelectric facilities.

Because of the significance of the undertaking, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted a two-week extension to the energy industry to submit comments on what makes up “critical energy infrastructure” — an exercise that could considerably limit public access in the future to information about natural gas, electric, crude oil and hydroelectric facilities.