Intermediate

Hardly any area can claim to be as much as “warm” any more, but generally seasonable temperatures dominating the near- to intermediate-term weather outlook early in the fledgling heating season resulted in dropping prices across the board Friday. The weekend decline of industrial demand and the bearish nature of the previous day’s storage report were additional market depressants.

To fund increased drilling in core areas of the Marcellus Shale and Piceance Basin, Antero Resources has added $126 million to its capital budget for 2011.

With an eye on U.S. natural gas storage and wholesale price levels, senior executives at intermediate Alberta oil/gas producer Perpetual Energy Inc.on Tuesday were unabashed in their hopes for some upward movement in natural gas prices as they reported indicators going the other way as part of a year-end 2010 and fourth quarter earnings conference call.

Power companies should have no problem refinancing maturing debt in the near-term despite the current credit crunch, given the improvement in the sector over the past couple of years, according to a new report issued by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Calgary-based juniors TriStar Oil & Gas Ltd. and Real Resources Inc. have combined forces to move into the intermediate sector of the Canadian oil patch. The merged company, which will trade under the TriStar name with TriStar management at the helm, will have combined production of more than 15,000 boe/d.

Calgary-based juniors TriStar Oil & Gas Ltd. and Real Resources Inc. have combined forces to move into the intermediate sector of the Canadian oil patch. The merged company, which will trade under the TriStar name with TriStar management at the helm, will have combined production of more than 15,000 boe/d.

The gas supply source that will have the greatest intermediate-term impact on the market will be imported liquefied natural gas (LNG), and currently it appears that 16 out of the 90 LNG regasification proposals in North America will be constructed, according to Energy Ventures Analysis Inc. (EVA) consultant Steve Thumb.

Bullied by revised intermediate-term weather outlooks and feeding off a delayed reaction to supportive storage data issued Thursday, natural gas futures finished the week on a positive note as prices rallied to new two-week highs Friday.

Traders cited new forecasts of colder weather, both near-termand intermediate-term, as the chief instigator of yet anotherreversal in cash market direction Thursday. Nearly all pointsrecorded strong gains between about a quarter and 60 cents.California was the conspicuous exception with further largedeclines, but it remained the most expensive market by far.