Posts tagged 'Natural Gas'

Where are all those natural gas fleet conversions?

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 30 14:28 | Comment |

Since 2009 the stark contrast between oil prices (high) and natural gas prices (low) in the US has prompted questions, and visions of a new future of transport fuels.

There was some excitement that this might be gathering steam when Warren Buffett’s freight train network BNSF revealed it would trial LNG powered trains. This is the sort of thing that T. Boone Pickens has been pushing for years: use domestic natural gas as transport fuel to reduce costs, reduce emissions and diminish US dependence on oil imports, while providing a ‘bridge’ to renewables-based infrastructure. Read more

The US manufacturing renaissance

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 29 16:20 | Comment |

Oped pages in recent months have been regular hosts to pieces extolling some of the unsung benefits of the US shale-gas revolution. Some of these have gone so far as to proclaim that shale gas is, or will be, a significant benefit for the country’s entire economy.

Lately, though, the narrative is beginning to sound hollow. Read more

About that peaking global oil demand…

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Apr 29 14:42 | Comment |

We’ve been reading a lot lately about the potential for cheap natural gas to replace oil-derived transport fuels in the US — and perhaps globally.

Much of this excitement overlooks some fundamentals of energy and commodities in general and the US natural gas sector in particular. The short version is that energy markets are incredibly difficult to predict, and adding interactions between energy sources only adds to the uncertainty. Read more

Is the end of the oil era nigh?

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Mar 27 11:05 | Comment |

Okay. This is weird.

Perhaps the analysts in Citi’s commodities team headed by Seth Kleinman (which includes the inimitable Ed Morse) didn’t get the memo? You know, the one about needing to talk up the old carbon complex as much as possible?

After all, how else do you account for the disruptive tone of the following summary points: Read more

Holiday illiquidity in one chart

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jan 02 11:48 | Comment |

Eric Hunsader at Nanex presents us with a nice start to 2013 markets — a no less than an 8 per cent drop and subsequent clawback in natgas futures during early Wednesday trade:

 Read more

US energy data point du jour

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Jul 06 2012 18:18 | Comment |

In the last week of June, the Dept. of Energy released data for April showing that natural gas generated the same amount of power as coal-fired plants for the first time in recent history. Each fuel contributed 32% of total electric generation.

That’s from CreditSights (full note in the usual place), and here’s the visual going back a few years: Read more

This wasn’t Chesapeake’s week, really

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| May 11 2012 21:22 | Comment |

As part of our asset monetization planning and capital expenditure budgeting process, we closely monitor the resulting effects on the amounts and timing of our sources and uses of funds, particularly as they affect our ability to maintain compliance with the financial covenants of our corporate revolving bank credit facility. While asset monetizations enhance our liquidity, sales of producing natural gas and oil properties adversely affect the amount of cash flow we generate and reduce the amount and value of collateral available to secure our obligations, both of which are exacerbated by low natural gas prices. Thus the assets we select and schedule for monetization, our budgeted capital expenditures and our commodity price forecasts are carefully considered as we project our future ability to comply with the requirements of our corporate credit facility. As a result, we may delay one or more of our currently planned asset monetizations, or select other assets for monetization, in order to maintain our compliance. Continued compliance, however, is subject to all the risks that may impact our business strategy.

From the not-there but then miraculously there, latest 10-Q. Read more

Could US natural gas run out of storage capacity?

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

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| Apr 20 2012 17:27 | Comment |

We keep reading about how US natural gas prices are depressed because of the glut of supply and unseasonably warm weather, driving down demand. Hard to argue with this – gas production has boomed since 2009 and the winter in North America has been rather balmy.

But there is another, quite unique, aspect to the natural gas market that we wanted to drill (pun intended) into: capacity. Read more

Low gas prices lead Chesapeake into $12bn asset sale

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Feb 14 2012 10:09 | Comment |

Chesapeake Energy plans to raise $12bn from asset sales in 2012, its latest effort to reduce debt amid the current slough in natural gas prices, the FT says. A deal to sell future output from the Granite Wash fields in Texas, rich in oil and liquid natural gas, would be included in the asset disposals. The company may also sell its entire stake in the Permian basin, an oil-rich field which will likely command a good price given the strength in crude prices, Bloomberg reports. Chesapeake, which aims to reduce its debt to $9.5bn by the end of 2012, also issued $1bn in bonds on Monday to pay off bank loans, taking advantage of calmer junk bond markets. Read more

Chesapeake plans $12bn in asset sales

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Feb 14 2012 03:07 | Comment |

Chesapeake Energy is seeking to raise up to $12bn through asset sales this year, as the company seeks to plug a funding gap that has been exacerbated by low natural gas prices, reports the FT. The second-largest US gas producer had already responded to decade-low prices by idling rigs and seeking to raise production of oil and liquid natural gas, so-called “liquids”, which fetch higher prices. But Chesapeake still needs to raise funds to meet planned expenditures in 2012. The company said on Monday that it was nearing a deal to sell future output from the liquid-rich Granite Wash in the Texas panhandle. It said it also hopes to raise up to $8bn through joint ventures and asset disposals, including a possible sale of its entire interest in the Permian Basin in Texas, a thinly developed field, but one that is thought to be rich in oil and liquid gas. Read more

Natural gas outrage of the day

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Feb 08 2012 12:31 | Comment |

The natural gas market has always behaved a little oddly.

First, it’s always been hugely seasonal, thus responsible for many a widow-maker trade. But now investors and traders have to contend with the impact of fracking too, a process which has by and large upped production to such a degree that prices have been knocked well and hard (à la the Baltic Dry Index): Read more

Chesapeake to slash gas production

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Jan 24 2012 04:34 | Comment |

Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest US gas producer, said it will slash gas drilling by nearly half, the WSJ reports.  The move is an abrupt turnabout by the company which calls itself “America’s Champion of Natural Gas” and helped pioneer the US shale gas boom. The announcement was greeted with exuberance by traders and investors, who have been waiting for months for a sign energy producers are willing to make dramatic changes in their gas-drilling behavior. Natural-gas futures jumped 7.8 per cent Monday to close at $2.525 per mmBTU, after two weeks of sharp declines. Read more

US natural gas prices fall to decade low

Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company. She's now the Head of New Projects for FT.com.

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| Jan 19 2012 09:54 | Comment |

US natural gas prices have sunk to the lowest point in a decade as the shale drilling boom threatens to fill the nation’s underground storage network, reports the FT. Nymex February gas was $2.402 per m British thermal units early Thursday, down almost 50 per cent from a year ago to return to levels last reached in early 2002. The decline marks a stunning turnround for a market that was building sea terminals to handle an anticipated flotilla of imports just a few years ago. Drillers’ use of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques has instead added decades to estimated reserves, allowing the US to ponder significant liquefied gas exports. Analysts say that with production at records and mild winter temperatures leaving inventories swollen, prices could approach $1 per m Btu later this year. US gas now costs just a third of prices in European markets and a sixth of gas sold in Japan, where it’s $15 per mBtu. An analysis unit of the US Department of Energy is on Thursday expected to release a study on the impacts of exporting liquefied natural gas to higher-priced markets. Read more

Military warns gas imports at risk

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Jan 16 2012 04:43 | Comment |

UK military leaders have raised concerns that more than 80 per cent of the UK’s liquefied natural gas imports would be halted if Iran made good its threat to block the Strait of Hormuz, the FT reports, citing people within the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Climate Change. Ministers and senior military figures have been warned that almost half the UK’s gas imports, and 84 per cent of its LNG imports, use the waterway. Lord West, former head of the Royal Navy and security adviser to Gordon Brown when the latter was prime minister, told the FT that, if the strait were blockaded, the sharp fall in the UK’s gas supplies would be the country’s single most critical issue. Furthermore, Iran’s upcoming presidential elections are adding to Tehran’s need to posture, said Christopher Parry, the MoD’s former director-general of development, concepts and doctrine. Read more

Kinder Morgan to buy El Paso for $38bn

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Oct 17 2011 09:11 | Comment |

Kinder Morgan has made a bold bet on the future of US natural gas by making a $38bn deal for El Paso, the pipeline operator, Reuters reports. The takeover includes El Paso’s debt alongside a $21bn cash and stock deal, and values El Paso at a 37 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price. Kinder Morgan said it plans to sell El Paso’s exploration assets, instead prizing the company’s 43,000 miles of interstate gas pipelines, the FT reports. Added to Kinder Morgan’s assets, the network will be able to reach every major natural gas production area in the US and create the country’s fourth-largest energy company, the WSJ says. Read more

Deal creates US gas pipeline giant

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 17 2011 05:42 | Comment |

One of the United States’ largest natural-gas pipeline operators is buying a rival for $21.1bn in cash and stock, the WSJ says, making a big bet on the future of shale gas. Pipeline giant Kinder Morgan says that by buying rival El Paso it will become the largest operator of natural-gas pipelines in the country, and the fourth-largest energy company in the US. The combined company would own about 80,000 miles of pipe stretching from coast to coast. It was not immediately clear how regulators would view the deal, which Reuters says could demand higher transport fees from oil and gas producers, which could then raise the prices that power companies and other end users pay for gas.

  Read more

Goldman to run Eon gas sale

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Oct 03 2011 05:34 | Comment |

Eon, Germany’s largest utility, has recruited Goldman Sachs to run a sale of its gas distribution network in a move that could raise up to €2.5bn to help pay down its debts and further shift its focus away from Europe, the FT reports, citing people familiar with the situation. After a recent beauty parade of bankers, the US investment bank has been chosen to find buyers for Open Grid Europe, which operates a 12,000km pipeline network in Germany and is a subsidary of Eon’s gas supply unit Ruhrgas, Germany’s biggest gas importer. The unit could be valued at €2bn to €2.5bn and a sale is likely to take until the first or second quarter of 2012 to complete, the people said. Read more

Creative ways to avoid exposure to LNG cost blowouts

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| Sep 19 2011 11:37 | Comment |

Despite the prospects of entering a golden age for natural gas, investors are looking decidedly less excited about LNG.

Australia is set to take over Qatar as the biggest exporter of LNG within the next decade or so. Read more

PetroChina, Encana talks collapse

| Jun 22 2011 01:58 | Comment |

PetroChina and Calgary-based Encana have abandoned plans for a joint venture to develop a large shale gas deposit in western Canada, marking the latest in a series of retreats by Chinese companies from proposed natural resource deals overseas, reports the FT. PetroChina’s investment, set at $5.4bn when the deal was unveiled in February, would have been China’s biggest investment in Canada’s energy sector. It would also have been its largest in shale gas, which is difficult to extract and for which Chinese companies want to master the technology. DealBook cites CIBC analysts saying that while Encana’s balance sheet was “reasonable,” the company was less likely to pursue a large buyback without PetroChina’s cash. Read more

Natural gas fracking details to be disclosed

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jun 20 2011 09:28 | Comment |

The Wall Street Journal reports that the natural-gas industry is bowing to pressure to disclose more information about the chemicals it uses in the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing. Texas Governor Rick Perry has signed into law a bill that will require companies to make public the chemicals used in the process. While a handful of other states have passed similar measures, the WSJ says Texas’s law is significant because oil and gas drilling is a key industry in the state and the industry vocally supported the measure. Until recently, much of the industry opposed providing detailed information about its chemicals on proprietary grounds. Hyrdaulic fracturing, also known as “fracking”, involves blasting millions of gallons of water, sand and other chemicals into the ground to extract oil and gas from the bedrock. Read more

Who’s been trading natgas futures on the curve?

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jun 10 2011 17:32 | Comment |

The natgas mystery continues!

Let’s start first with the following flashes from the CME via Reuters on Friday: Read more

Natgas ‘flash crash’ mystery goes on

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Jun 10 2011 09:51 | Comment |

Energy traders remain puzzled by a fleeting plunge in natural gas futures late in Wednesday’s trading, the FT says. While some have blamed a ‘fat finger’ trade for the July natural gas contract’s sudden 8.1. per cent drop — which resolved in seconds — the evidence is growing for an algorithm glitch triggered by low volume. Having revealed the role of algorithms in the May 6 2010 Flash Crash, data specialist Nanex believes the natural gas market was taken over by algorithms ‘running backwards’ and causing bid prices to spiral, FT Alphaville reports. Read more

An algorithim running backwards in natural gas

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Jun 10 2011 08:38 | Comment |

The folks at Nanex — the group which successfully data-mined the consolidated trade tape from the May 6, 2010 to determine the role played by algorithmic trading in the flash crash — have cast their eyes over to the natural gas futures market and Wednesday’s mini flash crash.

In their opinion, “a close-up” of the trading patterns on the day shows  “something very wrong” in the market. Read more

When algorithms fight, natgas edition

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Jun 09 2011 12:29 | Comment |

It’s not an earthquake. It’s last night’s mini-crash in natgas futures, via Zero Hedge:

 Read more

GE to invest in buoyant gas market

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 25 2011 10:32 | Comment |

General Electric is making “a big bet on gas” in an attempt to benefit from the increased use of the fuel for power generation, in part as a back-up to variable renewable energies such as wind and solar power, the FT reports. John Krenicki, the vice-chairman of GE in charge of its energy business, said the group was “looking at a 25-year, very bullish market” for gas, and making acquisitions and investing in new products to profit from it. The rise of gas for power generation is being driven by cheap supplies becoming available in the US, and perhaps eventually elsewhere, as well as by its lower carbon dioxide emissions when burnt than coal and its good fit with renewable energy. Mr Krenicki said: “We are betting on gas in a big way, investing ahead of the curve. Read more

When commodity ETFs go wrong…

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 05 2011 11:58 | Comment |

Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix observes an interesting point on Thursday regarding one of our favourite whacko ETFs, the United States Natural Gas Fund, or UNG for short.

Readers might recall how the ETF was forced to load up on natural gas swaps last year, after coming close to breaching CFTC position limits in natural gas futures. Read more

A nuclear primer from BarCap

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Mar 15 2011 09:33 | Comment |

Here’s a nice piece of research from Barclays Capital.

The UK bank has enlisted the help of a former nuclear safety employee to discuss events at Fukushima Daiichi, the Japanese nuclear plant hovering on the edge of meltdown. For what it’s worth, BarCap’s energy team doesn’t think there was an operator error at the plant — the force of the earthquake combined with the effect of the tsunami “simply exceeded what the plant was designed to withstand.” Read more

Natural gas prices jump after disaster

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Mar 15 2011 08:49 | Comment |

Natural gas prices have jumped as dealers are braced for Japan to step up its purchases to replace the large amounts of nuclear power capacity knocked out by Friday’s disaster, reports the FT. Japan is the world’s largest buyer of liquefied natural gas, a form of super-cooled gas shipped in tankers from exporters such as Qatar and Algeria. Any abrupt change in its energy demand could therefore affect commodities markets. FT Alphaville says it’s time to start watching the uranium-fossil spread. Read more

The UK’s Japanese natgas exposure

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Mar 14 2011 13:05 | Comment |

As we reported earlier, liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargoes are being diverted to Japan to help it overcome its fuel shortages.

This, though, is having an impact on European natural gas prices — British national balancing point (NBP) prices in particular. Read more

BP inks $7.2bn deal with Reliance

| Feb 22 2011 02:47 | Comment |

BP is making a $7.2bn thrust into India by taking a 30% stake in the vast but difficult-to-access natural gas blocks controlled by tycoon Mukesh Ambani, reports the FT. The deal with Reliance Industries, potentially worth up to $20bn and subject to government approval, follows BP’s $16bn share swap with Rosneft, the Russian state oil company, and marks the latest stage of the oil major’s recovery since last year’s Gulf of Mexico disaster. Bloomberg notes the deals signal BP’s shift towards the world’s fastest growing economies, with US exploration drilling still closed after the spill. But, warns the NYT, Indian approval for the Reliance deal “could take some time”. Read more

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