Alex Steis

Magellan Midstream Partners and Plains All American Pipeline LP announced Wednesday that a subsidiary of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has exercised its option to purchase a 20% equity interest in Saddlehorn Pipeline Co., a company with designs to build a pipeline that would tap crude oil production from the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday said it had simultaneously filed and settled charges against Intercontinental Exchange’s ICE Futures U.S. Inc. to the tune of $3 million for “submitting inaccurate and incomplete reports and data” for certain energy contracts and other commodities over at least a 20-month period, from at least October 2012 through at least May 2014.

Responding to market interest, electronic trading platform Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced on Friday the introduction of 44 new contracts, including energy futures and options contracts and Euro Cocoa.

Throwing its hat into the lucrative energy derivatives arena with veterans Intercontinental Exchange Inc. and CME Group, Nasdaq said Wednesday it has established an energy futures market with the support of leading commodities participants.

With its sights set on being a leading global energy market data analytics provider, Jersey City, NJ-based Verisk Analytics Inc. announced Tuesday it has agreed to acquire Wood Mackenzie from Hellman & Friedman and other Wood Mackenzie shareholders for about $2.8 billion in cash.

Nine years after the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) inked an agreement with CME Group’s Chicago Mercantile Exchange to offer side-by-side trading of its products on the open outcry floor and on CME’s Globex electronic exchange, CME Group, which ended up acquiring Nymex in 2008, said late Tuesday it will close most of its floor futures trading pits — including natural gas — in Chicago and New York by July 2.

Staring down another winter storm in the East, natural gas prices — both physical and futures — ballooned on Friday as traders looked to cover whatever the weekend might bring.

Moderate temperatures for much of the country, combined with ample natural gas supply teamed to push physical natural gas prices lower for the week ending Jan. 23, and natural gas futures jumped onboard as fresh storage data Thursday revealed a smaller withdrawal from inventory than the industry had been expecting.

Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report revealing a whopping 216 Bcf was removed from underground inventories for the week ending Jan. 16 hit natural gas markets with a thud instead of a bang, because while the withdrawal was significantly higher than any historical comparison, it fell short of industry expectations.