Thursday, April 3, 2014 -- The Number Of Active Rigs Are Trending Down; Spring Road Restrictions?

Active rigs:

	4/3/2014	04/03/2013	04/03/2012	04/03/2011	04/03/2010
Active Rigs	191	185	207	170	103

RBN Energy: exporting Marcellus LNG.

With Marcellus natural gas production expected to continue increasing, several companies are proposing projects to pipe a portion of the output through New England to Canada’s Maritime Provinces, where the gas would be liquefied and exported to Europe, Latin America and maybe even Asia. Some offshore Atlantic Basin gas production from Sable Island and Deep Panuke would be mixed in too. Such plans for as many as four new LNG export facilities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick hinge on the development of new pipeline capacity through New England to the existing Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (MNP), which would be reversed to flow north. Is this a golden opportunity or an overreach?  Today we examine prospects for exporting Marcellus gas through new Eastern Canadian LNG facilities.

It is no secret that natural gas markets in the U.S. Northeast and the Canadian Maritimes have been turned on their heads the past few years. Back in 2000, virtually all of the gas consumed in the Mid-Atlantic States and New England was piped in long distances, mostly from the Gulf Coast, and the Sable Offshore Energy Project (SOEP) was just starting to move gas from off the Nova Scotia coast down into New Brunswick and New England via the new Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (MNP).

Fast-forward 14 years and Marcellus gas has come to dominate the northeastern U.S., the flow of Gulf Coast gas into the region has slowed, SOEP output is declining, and gas from Deep Panuke--the newer offshore production area in the Maritimes—is facing competition it had not expected in New England. The MNP itself, which was built primarily to move SOEP gas down to near Boston, is likely to be flowing north before long.

The Wall Street Journal

High court ends overall limits on political donations.

Democrats, without enough votes for $10.10, consider smaller minimum wage increase.

Detroit gets approval to borrow $120 million. Remember the story yesterday: there has been more job growth in Detroit, since 1990, than in Los Angeles.

Russia says sanctions had effect on its economy: slower economic growth and drove up inflation. Really? All of that in less than 30 days? It takes that long just to compile data in the US. Something stinks.

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Court sides with airlines on frequent flier miles in a case involving the rabbi who was booted out of Delta's rewards program.

Northwest revoked the Platinum Elite membership of Rabbi Binyomin Ginsberg in 2008, relying on a clause that said the airline "in its sole judgment" could remove a customer who abused the program. The rabbi, who logged around 75 flights a year on Northwest, said the airline told he him he was being kicked out because he complained too much about travel problems and sought excessive compensation from the airline.

Something tells me even his congregation was glad to seem him booted; he was giving them all a bad name.

 

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Investors pull $7.3 billion from Pimco; latest setback underscores the challenges confronting Pimco following a year of record redemptions. I actually brought this up several years ago. I have never understood bonds and apparently a lot of investors finally admitted the same thing.

The Los Angeles Times

This will be interesting as a stand-alone post later, but here is the headline over at the LA Times: "jobless claims rise but 'remain low' heading into Friday's jobs report." Just below that somber news, is this one: "US trade deficit hit $42.3 billion in February." On top of all this, the President knows that only 60 - 75% of "enrollees" will actually pay their first month premium on time. It is going to be a long summer.