Injections

November natural gas is set to open 4 cents lower Thursday morning at $3.62 as traders anticipate a government report showing another round of above-average storage builds and the market puts in a new low overnight. Petroleum markets rose in overnight trading.

October natural gas is set to open 3 cents lower Thursday morning at $3.88 as traders await storage data that is expected to continue an ongoing process of deficit contraction relative to both last year and the five-year average. Overnight oil markets rose.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) has ruled out a shallow injection well in northeast Ohio as the likely cause of a 2.1-magnitude earthquake recorded there last month, lifting a ban on operations and continuing its investigation of a deeper well nearby.

October natural gas is set to open a penny higher Wednesday morning at $4.00 as traders discount expected hefty storage builds and assess the likelihood of a technically-based advance. Overnight oil markets rose.

Deep wastewater injection from the oil/natural gas sector is most likely responsible for the sharp increase in the number of small earthquakes recorded since 2001 in the Colorado-New Mexico border area, according to a study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America (BSSA).

An Oklahoma state representative is mulling the need for new regulations to govern oil and gas drilling waste disposal wells due to fears of groundwater contamination.

October natural gas is expected to open 3 cents lower Thursday morning at $3.92 as traders anticipate a government report that is expected to show well above normal increases in natural gas inventories. Overnight oil markets slumped.

September natural gas is expected to open 11 cents lower Friday morning at $3.80 as traders see a market mired in a near-term trading range and expected to see ample storage levels at the end of the injection season. Overnight petroleum markets rose.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Mid-Atlantic office, imploring it to shut down two Class II injection wells operated by a West Virginia-based company that NRDC alleges have not been properly regulated by the state.