While

While oversupply and pricing issues continue to be problematic, it is premature to write off natural gas liquids (NGL) with the prospect that increased U.S. natural gas exports would help bolster NGL trade, an equity research team at Wells Fargo Securities LLC said after meeting with two Houston-based NGL companies.

In an article Tuesday, the Post looked to the future with a report, “European industry flocks to U.S. to take advantage of cheaper gas,” while the Times complained Monday that the “Jobs Boom Built on Cheap Energy Has Yet to Appear.”

While oversupply and pricing issues continue to be problematic, it is premature to write off natural gas liquids (NGL) with the prospect that increased U.S. natural gas exports would help bolster NGL trade, an equity research team at Wells Fargo Securities LLC said after meeting with two Houston-based NGL companies.

While it let go of acreage in the Arkoma and Piceance basins last year, production from Antero Resources’ booming Marcellus Shale activities more than made up for their absence in the company’s portfolio of producing assets.

While the debate rages over whether exporting liquefied U.S. natural gas is a good idea, stocks of natural gas liquids (NGL) are so abundant, export of some is viewed as a necessity. And in the United States, more chemical sector demand can’t come fast enough.

Shoring up its infrastructure reliability in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens while also courting new customers, National Grid said Friday it will begin construction of the Brooklyn/Queens Interconnect project this week, which will be the first pipeline to be installed in the area in 50 years.

Most of the continental United States and northern Alaska will average warmer than normal this spring, while below-normal temperatures are expected for the Pacific Northwest and extreme northern Great Plains, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Spring promises little drought relief for Texas, the Southwest, the Great Plains or Florida, NOAA said. The temperature predictions dovetailed generally with a forecast issued recently by Andover, MA-based Weather Services International, which foresaw a spring warmer than usual in most of the eastern and central United States, but colder-than-normal temperatures are expected to dominate further west (see Daily GPI, Feb. 28).

Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy Inc. on Friday filed with Colorado regulators plans to raise retail natural gas utility rates while keeping retail electricity charges basically flat. Xcel’s combination Public Service Company of Colorado asked to make the rate changes effective April 1.

While it let go of acreage in the Arkoma and Piceance basins last year, production from Antero Resources’ booming Marcellus Shale activities more than made up for their absence in the company’s portfolio of producing assets.