One of the things I love about the Financial Times (the “pink” paper) is that their articles are short and to the point and they do not bleed from one page to another.  Anyway, the following piece from today’s paper puts further flesh on the bones of my recent LNG post to the point that U.S. natural gas prices are under pressure from the higher prices extant in other countries because U.S. ports are being outbid for LNG shipments.  This piece highlights Asian demand factors.  It also describes changing …

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An in-depth report on the market for natural gas in today’s Wall Street Journal focuses on the competition between the U.S. and Europe for LNG.  The price of gas over there is around $20 per mmcf, nearly double that here.  So there is good reason to suspect that over time the two prices will come closer as either supplies loosen up there or prices rise here in order to attract more LNG.  Most of the fundamentals that I have notice recently suggest prices will more likely remain high in …

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There seems to be much less discussion and analysis of the supply and demand dynamics for natural gas than for crude oil and other liquids.  Here is a link to the web site of the Natural Gas Supply Association, an industry trade group, that is replete with data and information about supply and demand vectors. This web site maintains that unproven NG reserves in the U.S., according to several sources that are presented, are about 6 - 9 times the proven reserves.  If such reserves become …

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According to a report in The Oil and Gas Journal (2/18/08) an extremely cold winter has put severe pressure on Iranian natural gas supplies, which is impacting other parts of their economy.  The weather has increased residential and commercial NG use 18% so that it now consumes 90% of production. Strained NG supplies have hurt oil production which is (unbelievably) pressurized by injection of, you guessed it, natural gas. The affected oil fields produced 930 kb/d if oil last year.  Gas pressurization is down by 33% - 75%.  …

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2008 drilling activity to produce natural gas in Canada is expected by one estimate to continue the drop experienced in 2007.  Oil sands activity that uses natural gas is expected to continue to grow.  Thus the U.S. can expected a continued drop in imports of natural gas. read full post

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REUTERS NEWS SERVICE ALGIERS - An Algerian company is planning to build a power cable to Germany to export solar-generated electricity from the Sahara, a state-owned newspaper reported on Wednesday. Tewfik Hasni, chief executive of New Energy Algeria (NEAL), said the 3,000 km (1,875 mile) cable would be laid from the Algerian town of Adrar to the German city of Aachen under a project provisionally entitled "Clean Power From The Desert", El Moudhaid daily reported. …

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