Lack

February natural gas gave up more than half of Friday’s gains Monday as traders cited a lack of cold weather capable of any kind of meaningful change in the storage surplus. At the close February had fallen 5.1 cents to $3.011 and March had skidded 4.8 cents to $3.050. February crude oil shed 25 cents to $101.31/bbl.

NGPL advised shippers of a potential OFO “for oversupply or undertake activities across its entire system due to the lack of significant market load.” Shippers can mitigate the need for an OFO by ensuring that imbalances are not in a long position and that point operators are flowing as nominated the pipeline added. It said that if it is determined that the OFO is required, “any gas left on the pipeline is at risk of OFO penalties.” See the bulletin board for details.

Early results, albeit preliminary and limited, indicate that the Niobrara play in southeast Wyoming is slow in coming to fruition, according to the state’s top oil/gas exploration and production official.

November natural gas posted a double-digit loss Tuesday as traders cited the relentless increase in production and lack of demand growth as continuing to thwart any price advance. At the end of the day November had fallen 13.5 cents to $3.553 and December had shed 11.5 cents to $3.788. November crude oil rose $1.96 to $88.34/bbl.

Despite a lack of evidence showing that there is a correlation between hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and increased seismic activity, British Columbia (BC) provincial authorities want to study the issue, focusing on BC’s Horn River Basin shale play.

With weather, futures, the weekend factor and lack of tropical threat appearing mostly bearish, it wasn’t quite clear how a substantive portion of the cash market managed to achieve small rebounds Friday. But flat to moderately higher numbers showed up at a majority of points, primarily in the Midcontinent/Midwest, Gulf Coast and Rockies.

Among those midstream players scurrying to put assets on the ground is Enterprise Products Partners LP, which posted record earnings for the second quarter. During an earnings conference call COO Jim Teague enthused about growth in the Eagle Ford and Haynesville shales, as well as plans to move liquids out of the Marcellus.

Prices declined, mostly by double digits, across the board Thursday as a relative lack of substantive cooling demand combined with the previous day’s 7.1-cent dip in July futures to bring bearish pressure on the cash market.

The cash market bowed to a general lack of significant heating or cooling load and only minor flooding disruptions of production in South Louisiana in retreating to mostly near-flat numbers and several small losses Tuesday, although moderate upticks were recorded at a majority of points.