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Weaker-than-expected North American natural gas drilling in the last four months has taken a bite out of earnings for at least two major U.S. oilfield contractors, and the slowdown is expected to impact energy earnings across the board for the next few months, according to energy analysts.

Energy officials last Tuesday said federal regulators still face a number of challenges in their effort to achieve a competitive wholesale electricity market. Some went as far as to say that competition in the bulk power markets has been a failed experiment, and called for a possible return to more regulation. But others weren’t as quick to admit defeat, pointing to the improvements in the power market that have been made over the last decade.

Prices continued to rely on the bullish combination of significant heating load in several market areas and a strong day-earlier screen to achieve further gains at nearly all points Thursday. Upward momentum was building as most upticks were larger than those on Wednesday. The exception was Northeast citygates, which — except for Transco Zone 6-New York City recording a second straight spike of about a dollar — rose at a slower pace than Wednesday and included Dracut, the only point to see a setback of about 15 cents.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for a revised plan from EnCana Corp. on its stalled Deep Panuke natural gas project offshore Nova Scotia. After notifying provincial authorities in December it would submit a new plan in six months, EnCana now estimates it could take up to a year as it works on ways to make the offshore discovery economical. Panuke originally was estimated to hold 1 Tcf of gas and was expected to produce 400 MMcf/d.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be impossible without revolutionary new energy technologies being developed by U.S.-led research.

U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said that meaningful reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will be impossible without revolutionary new energy technologies being developed by U.S.-led research.

“Although we have some exposure to commodity prices, we believe we have the opportunity to achieve the upper end of the range by continuing our track record of growth and cost containment, while also prudently managing our risk,” said CEO Robert Catell.

Competitive wholesale electricity markets are important to achieve effective competition in retail markets, according to a new report issued by the staff of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The report also examined which features of various state retail electricity programs have resulted in consumer benefits and which have not.

As traders had expected, prices used Thursday afternoon’s andFriday morning’s futures strength as a springboard to achieveincreases that were mostly between a nickel and a dime Friday.