Cent

Cash market trading yielded a decline of 2 cents overall Friday, but if the sizable losses on Tennessee and Algonquin are factored out, the physical market scored a 2-cent advance.

San Antonio-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp. is finalizing talks to sell its 25% working interest in the Nordheim Project in the Eagle Ford Shale to an institutional buyer for about $20 million, the company said Monday.

Overall cash points fell on average by 10 cents Tuesday as the physical market played catch-up to Monday’s 16-cent drubbing of the spot futures. Eastern and Midwest points were particularly hard hit as mild temperatures also worked to limit loads. At the close of futures trading November had gained 8.3 cents to $3.535 and December had added 9.3 cents to $3.861. December crude oil continued its free-fall by losing $1.98 to $86.67/bbl.

A vast majority of natural gas cash points took their cue from Tuesday’s 10.5-cent increase in September futures to post gains — albeit small — on Wednesday for Thursday delivery. However, if they continue to follow that model, declines could be in store on Thursday as the prompt-month futures contract on Wednesday gave nearly all of the prior-day’s gains away.

Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Michael Krancer said late last month he is “not convinced” that wastewater injection wells are an issue in the state, and said he disagreed with a state legislator’s plan to enact a two-year moratorium.

Notwithstanding Wednesday’s 11.8-cent decline in June natural gas futures (see Daily GPI, May 3), some market analysts believe the larger rebound in prices over the last month from sub-$2, 10-year lows is a sign of a tightening supply-demand balance ahead. However, “while we believe that summer 2013 prices have more room to rise, we believe that the rally in summer 2012 prices has gone too far,” said Goldman Sachs analysts David Greely and Johan Spetz.

The cost of crude oil and gasoline may be soaring, but natural gas prices continue to lag, with Henry Hub spot prices forecast to average $3.17/MMBtu this year, an 83-cent decline from last year’s average spot price, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for March. The 2012 price forecast is 11 cents lower than last month’s outlook (see NGI, Feb. 13).

The cost of crude oil and gasoline may be soaring, but natural gas prices continue to lag, with Henry Hub spot prices forecast to average $3.17/MMBtu this year, an 83-cent decline from last year’s average spot price, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook for March. The 2012 price forecast is 11 cents lower than last month’s outlook (see Daily GPI, Feb. 8).

While the January 2012 natural gas futures contract managed to eek out a 3.2-cent gain in Tuesday’s regular session to close at $3.128, bullish traders remain a rare breed as prices are still more than a dollar below where they were one year ago.