Volume

Even with the “unlimited” money available to spend by oil and natural gas producers in the last five years, only gas has gained volume-wise on a global basis, which indicates gas, mostly in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and gas-to-liquids products, will continue to take a bigger share of the market, a John S. Herold energy researcher said Friday.

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it set daily volume records for natural gas, heating oil and RBOB gasoline futures on the CME Globex electronic trading platform Wednesday. The new gas futures totals broke a record set just one day earlier. Natural gas futures trading on Globex on Wednesday reached a record 137,562 contracts, exceeding the 130,627 contracts traded on Tuesday. Heating oil futures totaled 72,676 contracts, surpassing the 63,577 contracts traded on Jan. 12. And RBOB gasoline futures traded 52,032 contracts, beating the 49,969 contracts traded on Jan. 9. Globex trading volumes now regularly represent more than 70% of the total physically settled Nymex energy futures contracts. Nymex launched its physically settled futures contracts for trading on Globex during regular open outcry trading hours on Sept. 5, 2006, following its initial offering of financially settled, standard-sized and miNY energy futures contracts for trading on Globex on June 12.

Sixteen natural gas processing plants in Louisiana and Texas that had a pre-hurricane flow volume of 5.45 Bcf/d remain shut down, according to information supplied by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to a Senate panel last Thursday.

Sixteen natural gas processing plants in Louisiana and Texas that had a pre-hurricane flow volume of 5.45 Bcf/d remain shut down, according to information supplied by Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman to a Senate panel Thursday.

To better manage natural gas prices and volume risks, state regulators should encourage gas utilities to use long-term natural gas contracts for transportation, storage and liquefied natural gas (LNG) services, and should consider requiring utilities to develop long-term strategies for pipeline capacity, gas storage and gas supply acquisitions in the “10-plus year range,” a joint task force of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) recommends in a new report.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) budget and the number of drilling permits processed both have increased, but the volume of protests against land development has far outstripped those gains, Rebecca Watson, assistant secretary of the Interior for land and minerals management, said in a speech to western producers.

With many traders heading for the holiday weekend early, the natural gas futures screen on Wednesday was quiet, with the prompt month trading within a 20-cent range for the entire session. After reaching a low of $6.73, January natural gas settled at $6.82, a 3.6-cent decline on the day.

Despite the fact that trading volumes remained light due to Passover and upcoming Good Friday, May natural gas futures shimmied up 6.3 cents to close at $5.872, halting a two-day stretch during which the daily changes were less than a penny.

Noting “the high volume of liquid recovered during the past weekend,” Questar said it has implemented more frequent pigging operations on its Southern System between Fidlar Station and Price, UT. The pipeline expects to accomplish pigging operations between the Riverbend area and Price with little or no customer impact, but said the work from Fidlar to the Riverbend area requires a change in flow direction. To facilitate the Riverbend-to-Fidlar pigging scheduled for Thursday, Questar has identified six production points in the area — Mesa Tap, Kings Canyon, Island 52-3, Hill Creek, Seep Ridge and Cottonwood Wash Tap — with hydrocarbon dew point levels in excess of 50 degrees F. It was accepting no nominations from those points for Thursday’s gas day said but said it would resume taking nominations there effective with Intraday 2 (Cycle 4) scheduling. Based on the liquids recovered during Southern System pigging operations, Questar will evaluate future nomination limitations from receipt points with high hydrocarbon dew points.