Monday, May 6, 2019

Welcome to GasNewsOnline.com! The battle for control of Anadarko Petroleum has taken another step as one of the suitors has sweetened the pot on Sunday! 



Meanwhile, a variety of springtime
temperatures (some cool and others quite warm) have continued to depress the
natural gas prices again as we start the week. 
  



We’ll check the latest interstate pipeline company critical notices plus an update on latest energy news and temperature forecasts into the middle of May, too.



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At the NYMEX, the June 2019 contract closed at about $2.53/MMBtu, down 4¢ from Friday. The price of the 12-month strip averaging June 2019 through May 2020 futures contracts has dropped 6¢ over the past week to about $2.67/MMBtu on Monday.



From the US Energy Information Administration’s “Natural Gas Weekly Update” publication, net injections to working gas in storage totaled 123 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ending April 26. Volumes in storage are currently 1.462 Tcf, which is 18% lower than the five-year (2014–18) average for this week.



The natural gas plant liquids composite price at Mont Belvieu, Texas, fell by 1¢, averaging $6.11/MMBtu for the week ending May 1. The price of isobutane, natural gasoline, and butane fell by 1%, 2%, and 3% respectively. The price of propane rose by 2%. The price of ethane remained flat week over week.



According to Baker Hughes, for the week ending Tuesday, April 23, the natural gas rig count decreased by 1 to 186. The number of oil-directed rigs fell by 20 to 805. The total rig count decreased by 21, and it now stands at 991.



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On Sunday, Occidental Petroleum Corporation delivered a letter to the Board of Directors of Anadarko Petroleum Corporation setting forth the terms of a revised and significantly enhanced superior proposal to acquire Anadarko for $76.00 per share comprised of $59.00 in cash and 0.2934 shares of Occidental common stock per share of Anadarko common stock.



The
revised proposal, which has been unanimously approved by the Occidental Board
of Directors, represents a premium of approximately 23.3% to the $61.62 per
share value of Chevron’s pending offer as of market close on May 3, 2019.



On
April 29, 2019, Anadarko announced its Board of Directors had determined that
Occidental’s prior proposal, made on April 24, could reasonably be expected to
result in a “Superior Proposal”, and the two companies have engaged since that
determination.



Occidental’s President and CEO, Vicki Hollub, said, “We firmly believe that Occidental is uniquely positioned to drive significant value and growth from Anadarko’s highly complementary asset portfolio. This combination will create a global energy leader with the scale and geographic diversification to drive compelling returns to the shareholders of both companies,” she added.



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Williams reported Friday that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued a certificate of public convenience and necessity authorizing the Northeast Supply Enhancement project – an expansion of the existing Transco natural gas pipeline designed to serve New York markets in time for the 2020/2021 winter heating season.