Archive for the 'Natural Gas' Category

$21 Billion of Oil and Gas Deals Announced Third Quarter 2009
PR Newswire

HOUSTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — PLS, Inc. (”PLS”) in conjunction with its international partner Derrick Petroleum Services (”Derrick”) reports that Global M&A activity for the 3rd Quarter 2009 totaled nearly $21 billion in 112 separate transactions. According to Brian Lidsky, Managing Director of Research at PLS, Inc., “Oil and gas deal volume increased markedly beginning in late August 2009 due to a confluence of events. These include: 1) a growing consensus that the economy bottomed in the 2nd quarter 2009 and a recovery is under way, 2) price stability of oil in the $65 - $75 per barrel range, and 3) a dramatic drop of U.S. natural gas prices in late August - early September towards the $2.50 range that signaled a buying opportunity to the U.S. markets. For perspective, the oil and gas forward 12-month strips at 3rd Quarter 2009 end were $73.00 per barrel and $5.93 per mcf (thousand cubic feet) versus year ago numbers of $99.02 per barrel and $8.15 per mcf.”

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Natural gas and how to play it
MoneyWeek

Oil is the energy resource that captures public attention – nearly all of us need its products to drive around every day, and feel the pain of prices of $130 a barrel, or thereabouts, when we fill our cars at the pumps.

But its poor cousin natural gas could be the one now offering more interesting investment opportunities:

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Sweeping Rahall Bill Would Overhaul Federal Oil and Gas Leasing, Royalties
By Noelle Straub / The New York Times

House Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) introduced a bill yesterday to forge a new Interior agency to govern oil and gas leasing on federal lands and to overhaul the federal royalty system.

The far-reaching bill also includes measures to improve planning for offshore energy development, address wind and solar programs, and boost funding for ocean conservation and land acquisition. It comes largely as a response to a series of scandals and scathing government watchdog reports on the federal agencies that handle oil and gas drilling on public lands.

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First Solar to Build World’s Largest Solar Power Plant in China
By John Duce and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan / Bloomberg.com

Sept. 9 (Bloomberg) — First Solar Inc., a U.S.-based renewable energy company, will build the world’s largest solar power plant in China as the country plans to increase non- polluting electricity generation.

The plant would be about thirty times larger than existing solar power stations operating in Europe, Dulce Qu, a Beijing- based spokeswoman for company, said by telephone today. The 2,000-megawatt complex will be built in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, China by 2019, Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar said yesterday. One mega watt is enough to power 800 U.S. homes.

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Winter may heat up natural gas prices
By Markus Ermisch / Sun Media
August, 27, 2009
Finance Minister Iris Evans says she’s not relying on winter to give depressed natural gas prices a boost, but chances are that at this point, Jack Frost is the government’s best friend.

Alberta’s government, in yesterday’s budget update, lowered its forecast for the price of natural gas to $3.75 per gigajoule, a cut of $1.75 from the forecast included in April’s provincial budget. Natural gas royalties for the fiscal year are now estimated at $1.9 billion, $1.8 billion lower than the budget estimate.

The government also adjusted the average oil price to $61 US a barrel, up from the $55.50 US contained in the budget. The higher oil price is offset by an appreciating loonie, and oil royalties are now forecast to drop $333 million to $1.9 billion.

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By Erin Ailworth / Boston.com

A state board yesterday approved plans to build a natural gas plant in Brockton, but left local officials with the power to veto the plant’s construction by choosing whether to grant the zoning exemptions needed to build the 350-megawatt facility.

The state Energy Facilities Siting Board, a division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, did not grant the exemptions because it “concluded that the proposed project’s environmental and energy supply benefits do not outweigh expected local impacts,’’ according to a statement.

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By Madalina Iacob Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES / Wall Street Journal
July 31, 2009

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)–Crude-oil futures settled at a one-month high Friday as the dollar plunged against major currencies, signaling a renewed appetite among investors for assets that stand to benefit from an economic recovery.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled $2.51, or 3.8%, higher at $69.45 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled $1.59, or 2.3%, higher at $71.70 a barrel.

The move from the safe haven of the dollar and into crude began soon after the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the U.S. gross domestic product had dropped by 1% in the second quarter, less than economists had expected and a far milder contraction than the 6.4% decline seen in the previous quarter. Expectations that the economy is turning the corner received a second boost when a survey of Chicago-area economic activity offered its best results since September 2008. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago, which conducted the survey, predicts the recession will end by December 2009.

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Boston.com
July 17, 2009

HOUSTON—The number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the United States rose by 4 this week to 920.

Of the rigs running nationwide, 665 were exploring for natural gas and 244 for oil, Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc. reported Friday. Eleven were listed as miscellaneous.

A year ago, the rig count stood at 1,928. The U.S. count is down about 55 percent since the end of August as weak energy demand has hampered oilfield activity.

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By Matthew L. Wald / The New York Times
July 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — While most lawmakers accept that more renewable energy is needed on the nation’s grid, the debate over the giant climate-change and energy bill now before Congress is exposing a fundamental rift. For many players, the energy not only has to be clean and free of carbon-dioxide emissions, it also has to be generated nearby.

The division has set off a fight between Eastern and Midwestern politicians and grid officials over parts of the bill dealing with transmission lines and solar and wind energy. Many officials, including President Obama, say that the grid is antiquated and that thousands of miles of new power lines are needed to allow construction of wind farms and solar fields in the most promising spots. Many of the best wind sites are in the Midwest, far from the electric load in populous East Coast cities.

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By Anne C. Mulkern / The New York Times
July 13, 2009

The battle over climate legislation will now pit the country’s top power sources against each other.

Saying they failed to protect their interests as a landmark bill came together and passed the House last month, natural gas executives are forming a strategy to influence rewrites in the Senate.

“There are a lot of people in the industry who are scrambling their forces right now,” said Fred Julander, founder and chairman of the Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference, an annual event that drew 1,800 industry people to Denver last week. “Whether we can learn and get up to speed — and it’s a steep learning curve — is the question.”

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