Fall

The February natural gas futures contract took a nasty fall on expiration Thursday. Traders noted that a 174 Bcf withdrawal reported by the Energy Information Administration included a 10 Bcf adjustment, thus tempering the amount of gas actually used.

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.

Pipeline projects in the planning stages by Equitrans L.P. and Dominion Transmission Inc. would carry as much as 1.4 Bcf/d of Marcellus Shale and other Appalachian production out of northern West Virginia to major connections in southwestern Pennsylvania by late 2012.

Fall may have officially begun a day earlier, but with parts of the Northeast joining the South and desert Southwest in conditions that felt more like summer, prices continued to rise at nearly all points Thursday. The cash market got an additional boost from Wednesday’s 4.7-cent gain by October futures, and a concern about the pending formation of a new tropical storm in the Caribbean likely played a role.

Prices continued to fall at nearly all points Thursday as subpar temperatures for late August persisted in most areas and a losing streak by the futures market continued to negatively influence cash numbers.

Prices continued to fall at virtually all points Thursday as weak prior-day futures continued to weigh on the market and predictions of hot weather lasting into at least mid-June were falling short of expectations.

Moderating late-February weather forecasts in some regions, the prior-day fall of 21.4 cents by March futures and the ever-present comfort level of ample storage inventories combined to drive cast prices lower across the board Friday. The usual weekend drop of industrial load was an additional bearish factor.

Moderating late-February weather forecasts in some regions, the prior-day fall of 21.4 cents by March futures and the ever-present comfort level of ample storage inventories combined to drive cast prices lower across the board Friday. The usual weekend drop of industrial load was an additional bearish factor.

With Royal Dutch Shell’s earnings in free-fall during the last three months of 2009, the oil major is selling some refineries and shifting some spending to the upstream to prepare for a longer-term focus on natural gas, CEO Peter Voser said Thursday.