Increase

December natural gas is showing continued weakness before release of weekly storage figures, although some traders see an important market turning point in play. December is expected to open a penny lower at $2.78. Overnight oil market rose.

Devon Energy Corp., which ran five rigs in the U.S. onshore during the third quarter, may have as many as 10 in operation by year’s end, the Oklahoma City-based independent said Tuesday.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. may hold a trove of leaseholds across the United States, but the portfolio of the future is guiding for growth from only three areas, the Permian Basin’s Delaware formation, the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) Basin and the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico, executives said Tuesday.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has voted to reduce Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania’s revenue increase request, approving a settlement that would increase annual operating revenues by $35 million. Columbia filed its request earlier this year seeking a $55 million revenue increase to help fund upgrades of its underground distribution infrastructure and training for pipeline safety and regulatory compliance (see Daily GPI, March 23). The PUC said the approved settlement would increase an average residential customer’s bill from $77.33 to $83.05 per month, or by about 7%. Columbia provides natural gas service to roughly 421,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in parts of 26 counties. Since 2007, the company has invested nearly $1.1 billion to modernize and expand its distribution system. The settlement also includes a program that provides alternative options to finance the costs of natural gas extension projects for large commercial and industrial customers.

Oil and natural gas executives told the Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) of Dallas that business activity increased during the third quarter, but there remains “persistent weakness” in employment and production, the latest energy survey indicated.

Oil and natural gas statistics were all up in North Dakota while prices for Bakken sweet crude continued to plummet since June, hitting $32/bbl on Friday, according to Lynn Helms, director of the state Department of Mineral Resources.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has voted to cut a base rate increase requested by UGI Utilities Inc.’s natural gas division by nearly 54%.

More proppant, longer laterals and cost reductions prompted Appalachian pure-play Antero Resources Corp. on Tuesday to announce an increase in its full-year production guidance by 3% with an unchanged drilling and completion budget of $1.3 billion.

Driven by competitive economics relative to coal and by warmer-than-normal temperatures, the amount of electricity generated using natural gas reached a record high during July, surpassing a record set in July 2015, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).