Cases

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar Tuesday said the department is weighing how it will move forward with a policy requiring producers to disclose the fluids associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on public lands. Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees 250 million acres, which contains 11% of the nation’s natural gas supply.

Weather forecasts, while cooling a bit further in the Midwest and beating a temperature retreat in the Northeast, certainly were still too moderate in most cases to explain small price increases at most locations Wednesday. It could only be concluded that the previous day’s relatively paltry 3.1-cent gain by May futures and storage buyers grabbing at what looked like bargain gas — for now — was behind the mild rally.

Weather forecasts, while cooling a bit further in the Midwest and beating a temperature retreat in the Northeast, certainly were still too moderate in most cases to explain small price increases at most locations Wednesday. It could only be concluded that the previous day’s relatively paltry 3.1-cent gain by May futures and storage buyers grabbing at what looked like bargain gas — for now — was behind the mild rally.

Flat to barely higher numbers continued to dominate the cash market Wednesday as sub-freezing lows accompanied by snow in some cases were in the next-day forecasts for the Midwest, Northeast, the eastern half of the South, the Rockies and most of Canada. Gains ranged as high as a little more than a dime in Transco’s Zone 6-New York pool but were in single digits in nearly all instances.

Flat to barely higher numbers continued to dominate the cash market Wednesday as sub-freezing lows accompanied by snow in some cases were in the next-day forecasts for the Midwest, Northeast, the eastern half of the South, the Rockies and most of Canada. Gains ranged as high as a little more than a dime in Transco’s Zone 6-New York pool but were in single digits in nearly all instances.

Prices stayed on an uphill path in most cases Wednesday, but the rate of increase was appreciably lower than the large gains during the first two days of the week and included several losses. Along with the previous day’s loss of 8.4 cents by December futures, cash gas appeared to be starting to acknowledge the moderating weather forecasts for the latter half of this week.

The October aftermarket got going on a moderately bearish note Wednesday, but in nearly all cases the losses were quite a bit smaller than Tuesday’s September-ending quotes, which saw double-digit declines at all points. A bit of extra chill and the previous day’s gain of 4.5 cents in the first prompt-month trading by November futures may have helped spur increases at several points, mostly in the West, but weak weather fundamentals continued to deny increases in most of the East.

Weak fundamentals and screen guidance drove virtually all points lower Thursday by greater amounts than Wednesday’s losses in nearly all cases, and it’s a virtual certainty that major softness will continue Friday — and very likely through next week.

Prices continued to shrink at a small majority of points Thursday, but the fact that losses were limited to a nickel or less in most cases, combined with a return of flat to modestly higher quotes at quite a few locations, indicated that the cash market wasn’t quite as weak as had been indicated a day earlier.