Last Thursday, we received a mildly bearish report from the federal government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), showing a higher-than-expected rise in natural gas supplies. Stockpiles held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 58 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended October 9. This takes the current storage level to a new all-time high of 3.72 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), which is up 13.8% from last year's level and 14.6% above the five-year range (as clear from the nearby chart from the EIA). Current stocks are 450 Bcf above last year’s level and 474 Bcf above the five-year average. The inventory addition was lower than the five-year-average injection of 64 Bcf and last year's build of 81 Bcf. The relentless increase in gas storage levels has meant that with three weeks remaining in the storage injection season, stockpiles ...

Yesterday, we received a mildly positive report from the federal government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA), showing a less-than-expected rise in natural gas supplies. Stockpiles held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 66 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended September 11. This takes the current storage level to 3.46 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), which is up 16.7% from last year's level and 16.4% above the five-year range (as clear from the nearby chart from the EIA). Current stocks are 496 Bcf above last year’s level and 487 Bcf above the five-year average. The inventory addition was lower than the five-year-average injection of 82 Bcf but slightly exceeded last year's build of 65 Bcf.     Overall, the relentless increase in gas storage levels continue to add to the long list of issues weighing on the commodity. At this pace, ...

Yesterday, in its weekly release, the federal government’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported another rise in natural gas supplies. Stockpiles held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 65 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended August 28. This takes the current storage level to 3.32 trillion cubic feet (Tcf), which is up 17.3% from last year's level and 17.8% above the five-year range (as clear from the nearby chart from the EIA). Current stocks are 489 Bcf above last year and 501 Bcf above the five-year average.     The inventory addition was smaller than last year's build of 92 Bcf but exceeded the five-year-average injection of 64 Bcf. The relentless increase in gas storage levels continue to add to the long list of issues weighing on the commodity. At this pace, inventories are on course to surpass the ...

Of all the people you might expect to spearhead a movement away from oil and onto alternative energy, T. Boone Pickens probably wouldn’t be at the top of the list.

But a year ago, the 81-year old chairman of BP Capital spent his own money to buy prime time on major networks and mobilized an “army” of believers in order to get the word out about the dangers of continued dependence on foreign oil.

Earlier this month, Pickens appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to discuss the progress of the “Pickens Plan,”which essentially seeks to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil through a combination of wind-generated power and natural gas powered vehicles. The goal: Drastically reducing or eliminating the need for foreign oil in as little as 10 years.

His timing was perfect, as oil prices shot to all-time highs around $150 a year ago. The plan garnered a lot of attention. And to

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Earlier this week, T. Boone Pickens, the 81-year-old Chairman of BP Capital, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the progress of the “Picken’s Plan.”

Readers might remember it was during the heat of the Presidential campaign last summer, on July 8, that Pickens began his own campaign to wean the nation off of foreign oil.

Spending his own money, he bought time on the major networks and mobilized an “army” of believers in order to get the word out about the dangers of continued dependence on foreign oil.

Essentially, the Pickens Plan seeks to reduce the nation’s dependence on foreign oil with a combination of wind-generated power and natural gas powered vehicles. In the process, the need for foreign oil is drastically reduced or eliminated in as little as 10 years.

His timing - with oil prices hovering around $150 a barrel - got him a lot of attention.

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At the EU summit Russia warned that it will not extend any loans to Ukraine and refused to offer guarantees that gas supplies would not be interrupted.  President Viktor Yushchenko has said that the agreement Ukraine and Russia came to in January 'fails to meet the economic policy basics'.  Putin says Russia will not accept Ukraine's proposal to postpone gas storage payments in exchange for future transit fees. Gazprom Neft is seeking a bigger stake in Sibir Energy - up to 30%.  Rumors abound that the company may purchase an additional stake to give it a controlling interest.  A special committee has been created to deal with the issue of gas supplies to eastern Europe in the 1990s, as Gazprom claims it is owed money as part of a deal which saw it exchange gas for ...

TODAY: Georgia, energy and human rights on the agenda for a tense EU-Russia summit; US-Russia arms talks conclude positively; Kremlin insistent on US missile defense issue; will US soldiers in Poland provoke friction?; revered actor Oleg Yankovsky diesA handful of issues await delegates at the EU-Russia summit; RFE/RL focuses upon the potential sources of disagreement and the despondency of Brussels diplomats regarding all matters Russian.  A Moscow Times commentator looks at the advantages for Russia becoming closer to the EU, and the main divisive points between them, with 'energy and human rights at the top of the list'.  EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said that despite the tensions, the EU would like to have a policy of 'dialogue and engagement' with ...

There's a piece today in the Financial Times about some modest signs that commodity demand may be picking up to help the Ukrainian economy get itself out of the gutter - though the rough times appear to be far from over.  What caught my eye on this article were two interesting facts - that the second gas war between Gazprom and Ukraine caused industrial production to fall by 16% month on month as Kiev diverted its remaining supply to heating people's houses (talk about the energy weapon!).  The other detail was the fact that the IMF was delaying in its delivery of the second tranche of its $16.4 billion loan because of the unending political squabbling between the camps of President Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.  Needless to say, they've really got to get their act together, but it ...

Ukraine and Russia are at it again. This time, it’s turned especially nasty, as Russia cut off natural gas supplies to a host of European countries. Tired of relying on Russia, the EU will again look for alternatives. Its eyes will wander to Turkmenistan.

Back in October, while the world was busy putting out the fires of a financial crisis that still burns, little-thought-of Turkmenistan made a bombshell of an announcement. It seemed to gather little notice at the time. But it could become much more important as the Russian-Ukraine dynamic gets worse.

Gaffney, Cline and Associates, a British consulting firm, completed an audit of Turkmenistan’s Yoloten-Osman natural gas deposits. Based on GCA’s first results, the fields have a minimum of 4 trillion cubic meters of gas… and as much as 14 trillion cubic meters of gas, a truly staggering sum. The announcement put Yoloten-Osman among the four or five largest natural

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Demand Softness and Storage Overhang Weigh on Natural Gas PricesFeatured in this post are these companies: Nabors (NBR), Patterson-UTI (PTEN), EnCana (ECA), EOG Resources (EOG), XTO Energy (XTO) and Chesapeake (CHK).In its weekly natural gas status report, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported yesterday that gas in storage totaled 3,167 billion cubic feet (Bcf) for the week ended December 12, 2008. This represents a net withdrawal of 124 Bcf from the preceding week, the largest this heating season, but modestly below the 128 Bcf withdrawn this week last year and on average over the last five years.Current storage levels are now 1.3% below last year's level, but still above the 5-year average by 3.7%. Colder than average weather prevailed in all regions east of the Rockies, helping increase heating-related consumption and playing a role in the sizable ...