Volatile

Recording their second consecutive volatile reaction to a natural gas storage report (see Daily GPI, April 3), May natural gas futures on Thursday morning traded violently up and down surrounding the news that 20 Bcf was injected into underground inventories for the week ending April 3. Following the two-minute mayhem, the prompt-month contract resolved lower before closing the session at $3.610, down only two pennies from Wednesday’s finish but 19.1 cents lower than the previous week’s finish.

Volatile fuel prices and economic uncertainty weren’t enough to keep Duke Energy’s core operations from performing well, the company said in reporting 2Q2008 adjusted diluted earnings of 27 cents/share, up from 24 cents in 2Q2007.

Natural gas prices continue to be volatile, but most signs point to favorable rating trends for the U.S. oil and natural gas sector for the rest of this year and into 2008, according to an industry report card by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Natural gas prices continue to be volatile, but most signs point to favorable rating trends for the U.S. oil and natural gas sector for the rest of this year and into 2008, according to an industry report card by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Federal and state air quality agencies are considering how to best estimate and measure the level of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and field testing in some western states may begin within a year to consider whether additional regulations are needed, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official said.

Federal and state air quality agencies are considering how to best estimate and measure the level of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions from oil and natural gas facilities, and field testing in some western states may begin within a year to consider whether additional regulations are needed, an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official said.

Following a run-up in capital costs and volatile natural gas prices over the past year, energy analysts predicted that exploration and production (E&P) companies likely would flatten their drillbit and acquisition spending in 2007, especially after posting healthy returns for the past three years. However, with solid 1Q2007 reports in, some analysts now see U.S.-based independents bulking up their capital budgets, with their eyes on more exploration and possible acquisitions.

Dominion Resources Inc.’s net income in the final quarter of 2006 plunged 88% from a year ago, with the volatile exploration and production (E&P) segment posting an 83.6% drop in earnings compared with a year earlier. Dominion E&P, which the CEO said is “on track” to be sold by the end of 2Q2007, is rumored to be drawing the interest of private equity players, global oil and gas majors and several U.S.-based independents.

Anyone watching and listening to energy markets knows that with higher and more volatile commodity prices comes the more frequent utterance of words such as “speculation” and “manipulation,” often in the same breath.