Disturbance

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) released the latest in a series of reports analyzing land disturbance from natural gas drilling over a six-year period in Pennsylvania on Wednesday, and it plans to release another report covering nearly half the state by the end of the year.

Pennsylvania hunters will likely find a changed woods this hunting season and may be surprised by the level of disturbance and activity on public lands in the north-central, northeastern and southwestern regions of the state, according to a wildlife expert in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

Lack of above-normal temperatures and tropical disturbance development tied with weakness in the petroleum arena allowed natural gas futures on Monday to continue to explore the downside. After reaching a low of $6.710, September natural gas wound up staging a minor rally in closing out the day at $6.913, still down 35.6 cents from Friday.

Cash prices saw a major resurgence Monday that owed more to screen strength Friday and Monday and new tropical disturbance activity than it did to weather-related fundamentals. Northeast citygates were pushing above $10 again amid overall gains ranging from about a quarter to nearly 80 cents.

With one eye on the tropical disturbance in the Caribbean and the other focused on Thursday’s storage report, natural gas futures traders took a wait-and-see approach to the market Wednesday. The result was choppy, sideways-to-lower trading. The September futures contract failed to retest the $5.28 high achieved in the overnight Access trading session Wednesday, paving the way for light long liquidation. It closed at $5.179, down 3.8 cents for the session.