Weighing

The Department of Interior, which is weighing new chemical disclosure rules for drillers operating on public lands, last week signaled support for the natural gas industry’s shale boom, which has been “stimulated” by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) technology.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Tuesday said the department is weighing how it will move forward with a policy requiring producers to disclose the fluids associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 250 million acres, which contains 11% of the nation’s natural gas supply.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Tuesday said the department is weighing how it will move forward with a policy requiring producers to disclose the fluids associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 250 million acres, which contains 11% of the nation’s natural gas supply.

Dominion Resources last week said it was still weighing its options following the decision of West Virginia regulators to reject the proposed sale of the Dominion Hope natural gas distribution company to a San Francisco investment company.

Credit Suisse Friday cut its U.S. natural gas price forecast for 2009 to $3.92/Mcf from $4.00, and sliced the 2010 estimate to $4.642 from $5.140. Weighing on the 2010 prices are expected increases in LNG imports and the start-up of 15 new coal-fired plants.

In a sign that perhaps the continuing large outages of Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production may be weighing on the market a bit more than before, prices were about evenly mixed between flat, higher and lower Thursday. Significant cooling load remains rather scarce outside the area from Texas through the desert Southwest to interior California, and the previous day’s futures gain of less than a penny was essentially neutral for the cash market.

Contrary to perceptions, liquefied natural gas (LNG) proponents are still active in California, and on the eve of a deadline for the state’s governor weighing in on an offshore terminal proposal, activity continues to attempt what some critics consider politically impossible — siting an LNG terminal somewhere along the Southern California coast. The longest-running proposal to site a terminal in Long Beach harbor is still alive as are four separate offshore terminal proposals.

With the state’s chief regulator weighing in, California is poised to establish final rules for natural gas transmission and storage in the state as the end of the second phase of a multi-year industry restructuring. After postponing the issue earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is scheduled Sept. 21 to vote on the issue, which covers various bread-and-butter issues affecting the state’s vast transmission/storage system and its upcoming integration of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

With the state’s chief regulator weighing in, California is poised to establish final rules for natural gas transmission and storage in the state as the end of the second phase of a multi-year industry restructuring. After postponing the issue earlier this month, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is scheduled Sept. 21 to vote on the issue, which covers various bread-and-butter issues affecting the state’s vast transmission/storage system and its upcoming integration of liquefied natural gas (LNG).