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Natural Gas Market Indicators
Record amounts of snow in the mid-Atlantic and periodic cold temperatures in many regions of the country have not been able to shake-off the relative strength of U.S. natural gas supply this winter heating season. Henry Hub cash and futures prices remain stable in a $5.30-6.00 per MMBtu range and seem to be rational in a market still sporting high levels of working gas in underground storage, firm daily production and demonstrated flexibility from Canadian and LNG sources.
To some waiting for a domestic production fall, it remains remarkable that rig operations in the United States are on the increase again and that the majority are clearly targeted to sustain and grow more natural gas production capability in the country.
Visit this link to download the full Natural Gas Market Indicator. Topics covered include: Reported Prices, Weather, Working Gas in Underground Storage, Natural Gas Production, Rig Counts, Pipeline Imports and Exports, and LNG Markets.
Hackers Steal Millions in Carbon Credits
There’s a lot of debate about cap and trade here in the States. The debate makes for interesting reading. There are a number of different scenarios and ideas surrounding the whole cap and trade concept. One concept I hadn’t considered, and maybe I should, is theft. Not sure what I mean?
Give this article at Wired a quick read. Basically a group of hackers launched a phishing campaign against employees of some companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan. Phishing is when a hacker sends an email to someone directing them to a fake Web site trying to get the person to enter in sensitive information like their password. The site captures the information and the hacker can use it later to access the account.
In this case, the emails appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority that records carbon credits and transactions. The employees were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority and were directed to a fake Web site to enter the information.
According to an estimate from the BBC, the hackers stole 250,000 carbon credit permits from six companies worth more than $4 million. At least seven out of 2,000 German firms that were targeted in the phishing attack fell for it, including one firm that lost $2.1 million in credits in the fraud.
The buyers of the credits have not been named and the German Emissions Trading Authority has suspended access to its databases while an investigation is underway.
Has anyone else heard any stories like these?
Thank Goodness for Natural Gas
A snow storm of historic proportions was forecast to begin Friday, February 5, 2010 in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. As predicted, the snow began just before noon and continued through the day and evening. At some point in the middle of the night, the electric power to our neighborhood went out. We woke to a house that was 64 degrees and dropping. My first thought was how to keep my family warm. Fortunately our home has a natural gas fireplace.
Typically we start our fireplace with a remote control. With the power out, the remote control and the wall switch, which both run on electricity, were both inoperable. After a quick review of the manual, I opened the access panel and manually started the fireplace. Within minutes, the temperature of our family room rose to 65 degrees and by late morning it even reached 70 degrees which was very comfortable. This temperature was maintained for the rest of the day. Our home has an open first floor design which meant that the heat from the fireplace also kept our kitchen warm. In order to contain the heat we hung a sheet over the opening to our dining room and hall. During this time the temperature kept dropping in the second floor and reached as low as 50 degrees late in the afternoon.
Not only did natural gas keep us warm but we also enjoyed hot food. We manually lit the burners on our gas stove and cooked pancakes for breakfast. We grilled sandwiches for lunch, and we cooked green beans, pierogies and steak for dinner. And, we had plenty of hot water for washing dishes in the sink and hot showers all thanks to our natural gas hot water heater.
During this power outage many friends and neighbors headed to local hotels for safety. Unfortunately our neighborhood had not been plowed and getting out would have been difficult if not impossible. Without our natural gas service and appliances we would have had a quite cold and challenging experience. Instead, we enjoyed the warmth of our home and family while enjoying the comfort of cooked food and hot water.
True Blue Natural Gas Blog from the American Gas Association (AGA)- Utah Clean Cities Coalition and Questar Gas open new fueling station in Utah
- Natural Gas Roundtable: Caruso and Hatley
- Focus on Low-Carbon Solutions
- Congrats to Alagasco on their expanding natural gas fleet
- Natural Gas Market Indicators
- Spectra Responds to Natural Gas Pipeline Concerns
- Don’t Miss Out—Make Sure to Register for the World Shale Gas Conference & Exposition
- Dave Parker Receives Prestigious Key Award from ASAE and The Center
- Department of Energy proposes to use full-fuel-cycle analyses in developing energy efficiency standards
- High dividend tax rates will negatively impact utilities
