Worse

The fate of the extensions of tax credits for renewable fuels and energy efficiency took a turn for the worse Friday as the House passed its own version of the tax package — ignoring warnings from the Senate not to tinker with its tax measure, which was approved earlier in the week.

After filing for bankruptcy on Tuesday, SemGroup LP’s problems became even worse on Thursday as it was revealed that the Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oklahoma City are investigating the company’s collapse (see Daily GPI, July 24).

Oil and natural gas “rust” is an “evil worse than depletion,” and in the next seven years, $50-100 trillion should be earmarked to rebuild the world’s aging infrastructure, according to energy guru Matthew R. Simmons.

Oil and natural gas “rust” is an “evil worse than depletion,” and in the next seven years, $50-100 trillion should be earmarked to rebuild the world’s aging infrastructure, according to energy guru Matthew R. Simmons.

Intimating that Southern California’s highly compromised air quality could be made worse by large liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in the future, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court Tuesday against the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which established new gas quality standards for the state’s major gas utilities last fall.

Intimating that Southern California’s highly compromised air quality could be made worse by large liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in the future, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) filed a lawsuit in state Superior Court Tuesday against the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which established new gas quality standards for the state’s major gas utilities last fall.

A combination of high U.S. natural gas inventories and difficult year-over-year weather comparisons means that gas should continue to trade “at worse” than an 8:1 ratio with crude oil through Oct. 31, Raymond James analysts said in their latest “Stat of the Week.”

Stung by lower-than-expected first quarter results made worse by one-time charges due to accounting changes, Sempra Energy CEO Steve Baum Thursday predicted his energy trading operation would rebound in the short term from the first quarter loss. He also predicted his company would be North America’s largest importer of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by 2007.

Actual fourth quarter results of the 37 producers covered by the Raymond James energy team indicate that U.S. natural gas production declined by 2.7% sequentially and 6.4% year-over-year, a more aggressive drop than the analysts suspected just weeks ago. “It ain’t pretty,” said analysts in the latest “Stat of the Week.”