On this President’s Day holiday I have included links to five articles from the last 72 hours, all of which are timely and relevant to today’s energy markets. They range from a sobering assessment of coal oversupply by Bloomberg, a recap of Mitsubishi’s acquisition of Encana’s shale assets, the impact of the drilling slowdown in Luzerne County, PA (in the dry gas region of Pennsylvania), and just for fun, a recap of Range Resources latest victory in its suit-counter-suit over the burning water hoax. My favorite quote is out of a NY Times article “Drawing the Line at Power Lines”, a surprisingly rational assessment of the tradeoffs between energy and the environment, in which TransCanada (Keystone XL) executives are labeled as “overly rational”. Sounds like an underlying problem for much of our industry.
Coal Turns Ugly as Gas Cuts Use to 20-Year Low: Energy Markets
BLOOMBERG. By Mario Parker - Feb 17, 2012
Coal demand in the U.S. is collapsing as power companies switch away from the fossil fuel to take advantage of the cheapest natural gas in 10 years.
Drawing the Line at Power Lines (Transcanada Exexs overly rational)
NY TIMES SUNDAY REVIEW By Elisabeth Rosenthal- Feb 18, 2012
As energy people, the TransCanada executives were perhaps being overly rational about a reality that Americans seem determined to forget: Large-scale energy is typically produced in remote places and inevitably needs to be transported to the populated areas where it is used. That is a fact whether the energy comes in the form of “dirty” traditional fuels like coal or oil, or in the form of cleaner natural gas.
Mitsubishi Buys 40% Stake In Encana Shale Gas Assets
NY TIMES DEALBOOK. By Michael J. De La Merced- Feb 17, 2012
The shopping spree for shale gas assets continues. Mitsubishi will invest 2.9 billion Canadian dollars in exchange for a 40 percent stake in Encana’s Cutbank Ridge holdings in British Columbia, where the Canadian company owns about 409,000 net acres.
As gas boom slows, worry sets in (Luzerne County, PA – dry gas area)
CitizensVoice. By David Falchek- Feb 19, 2012
"As goes the rig count, so goes the economy," in Wilkes-Barre, PA. "We are in a long-term structural down market that's going to last at least two more years."
Texas Judge: Flaming Water a Hoax, Conspiracy Against Range
NGI Shale Daily – Beg 20,2012
A Texas couple that has sued Range Resources Corp. for allegedly contaminating its drinking water with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on Thursday lost a bid for dismissal of the company's countersuit, which alleges that the couple participated in a conspiracy to defame Range.
