Cold

With bone-chilling weather finally arriving in the Lower 48, the resulting surge in natural gas demand fueled massive gains across U.S. natural gas forward markets.  The February natural gas contract rolled off the board Wednesday at an average 22.0 cents higher than where it started the Jan. 21-27 period. The incoming prompt-month March contract jumped…

As Arctic cold settled in Wednesday across a wide swath of the country, from the Midwest to the Northeast, producers and midstream companies in the Appalachian and Williston basins were busy trying to fight the effects of record-setting temperatures on their operations and crews.

Antero Resources Corp. said Wednesday that this year’s completion schedule, a pipeline rupture in Ohio and last month’s extreme cold are likely to combine in holding its first quarter production flat with 4Q2017 volumes of 2.347 Bcfe/d.

March natural gas was set to open Monday about 5 cents lower at around $2.794, as weather guidance over the weekend failed to offer anything to excite the bulls in terms of prospective heating demand.

March natural gas was set to open Tuesday about 7 cents higher at around $3.239, with forecasters still pointing to cold risks looking ahead to the middle of February.

February natural gas was set to open Tuesday about 14 cents lower at around $3.055, retreating off a surge late last week following a record storage withdrawal.

February natural gas was set to open Wednesday about 3 cents higher at $2.959, helped by bullish adjustments to the outlook for Arctic cold expected move in next week.

February natural gas was set to open Tuesday about 5 cents higher at around $2.882 as forecasters were pointing to colder changes overnight in a pattern set to arrive next week.

A massive winter storm spawned by curiously named weather phenomena — bombogenesis, aka a bomb cyclone — has knocked power out to thousands of customers along the East Coast, forcing schools to close, flights to be canceled, and others to hunker down with a good book, perhaps even a thesaurus.