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Enbridge Inc. has won the second round of its legal battle against fossil fuel foes to keep its 540,000 b/d oil Line 5 across the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.

Following last Friday’s sell-off, natural gas futures gave up further ground Monday on modestly cooler weather forecasts and lingering concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on industrial energy demand. Persistently low liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes also continued to weigh on markets.

Cooler near-term weather patterns in key regions and a storage injection that showed still-robust surpluses weighed on weekly spot gas prices for the June 8-12 period. NGI’s Weekly Spot Gas National Avg. declined 4.0 cents to $1.570.

Appalachia pure-play CNX Resources Corp. plans to increase some of its previously curtailed natural gas production beginning in July, with additional adjustments to be made as conditions warrant.

Natural gas futures advanced Thursday after the latest storage report met expectations and forecasts continued to call for more June heat. However, demand concerns lingered as markets absorbed an economic outlook that pointed to protracted fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The July Nymex contract settled at $1.813/MMBtu, up 3.3 cents day/day. August rose 3.0 cents to $1.900.

The steep downward slope in U.S. drilling activity the past three months showed signs of leveling off during the week ended Friday (June 12) as the domestic count dropped a relatively modest five rigs, according to the latest numbers from Baker Hughes Co. (BKR).

A majority of respondents in a survey of the Texas oil and gas sector expects the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price to average $30-59/bbl by next May, and most expressed a “good deal” or “great deal” of concern about Democratic candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. becoming president in November.

With persistent concerns about global exports, cooler-leaning near-term forecasts sent natural gas forward prices down a few notches for the June 4-10 period, according to NGI’s Forward Look.

The beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), one of the last major greenfield projects pending to move natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales, is almost at the finish line, but more delays and cost overruns are likely, according to the operator.