Either

Kerr-McGee Corp. said Tuesday that it has authorized management to proceed with a proposal to either spin off or sell its chemical business, and the board authorized a share repurchase initially set at $1 billion, which may be expanded after the chemical unit is sold or spun off. The company also blasted a proposal by financier and shareholder Carl Icahn, who called on the company to set up a volumetric production payment (VPP) transaction for 250 million boe.

End-of-January prices reacted to moderating weather trends (either already under way or impending), Thursday’s screen loss of a dime, and lower weekend industrial load by dropping across the board Friday. The Northeast again was far out in front in leading the charge downward with multi-dollar plunges that had citygates returning to something more closely resembling “normal” levels.

With warming trends developing, several pipelines either had already canceled holiday restrictions that had been in effect over the long holiday weekend due to cold weather or were in the process of doing so. However, a few constraints were still in place Monday. Wellhead freeze-offs were reported in a couple of areas but did not affect deliveries.

Prices strayed mostly short distances to either side of flat Thursday, with moderate gains tending to outweigh the losses despite sources contending that substantive heating load remains hard to find — for now. Most of the declines occurred in the West.

Prices strayed mostly short distances to either side of flat Thursday, with moderate gains tending to outweigh the losses despite sources contending that substantive heating load remains hard to find — for now. Most of the declines occurred in the West.

It’s either “A Bipartisan Strategy to Meet America’s Energy Challenges,” prepared by a group of leading energy experts or a “Blueprint for Tax/Consumer-Funded Boondoggle….funded by left-wing foundations,” depending on whose press release you are reading.

It’s either “A Bipartisan Strategy to Meet America’s Energy Challenges,” prepared by a group of leading energy experts or a “Blueprint for Tax/Consumer-Funded Boondoggle….funded by left-wing foundations,” depending on whose press release you are reading.

With little consensus from either technical or fundamental factors, natural gas future prices chopped erratically sideways Tuesday within a 12-cent trading range. After gapping lower at the open in reaction to bearish short-term weather forecasts, the prompt month was bid steadily higher throughout much of the session as traders grew increasingly confident that Thursday’s storage data will be price-friendly.

After moving to either side of unchanged, the natural gas futures market finished in slightly positive territory Wednesday as concerns over a large storage number edged out forecasts calling for wide temperature swings over the next couple of weeks. At $6.387, the February contract was up 5.8 cents for the session, but well below its intra-day high of $6.58. At 70,004, estimated volume was moderate.