Living

Living up to preliminary estimates earlier in the year calling for a 50-year high (see Shale Daily, Jan. 25), Colorado oil/natural gas officials released statistics showing oil production was up 22% last year, soaring past the 40 million bbl mark for the first time in a half-century at 47.9 million bbl.

Weekend prices fell at a large majority of points Friday as March appeared to be living up to its “shoulder month” reputation more than when cold weather lingered into the month’s first week. The bearish storage report from a day before, which spurred a dime drop by April futures, and the weekend decline of industrial load were other factors in softer quotes.

With steadily improving efficiencies in the drilling of onshore natural gas wells, most operators will earn a “decent living” if gas prices average around $5/Mcfe “and the others will adapt…or fade away,” analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week. Credit Suisse analysts also are pessimistic about gas price gains in 2010, and meanwhile, the FitchRatings credit ratings team lowered its gas price estimates to around $4 for the coming year.

With steadily improving efficiencies in the drilling of onshore natural gas wells, most operators will earn a “decent living” if gas prices average around $5/Mcfe “and the others will adapt…or fade away,” analysts with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said this week.

More than a dozen families living in a northeastern Pennsylvania town in the heart of the Marcellus Shale on Thursday sued Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. and a service operator, claiming that their water wells became contaminated when the producer used hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) to stimulate production from area natural gas wells. The plaintiffs claim the hydrofracing “fluid and/or drilling mud includes hazardous chemicals that are carcinogenic and toxic.”

Living up to the old trader adage that “anything can happen on expiration,” the April natural gas futures contract on Thursday explored both higher and lower price levels before anticlimactically going off of the board nearly unchanged from Wednesday’s close. The April contract traded between $9.385 and $9.640 before expiring at $9.578, up six-tenths of a cent from the previous day’s close. May futures had a similarly adventurous day, trading between $9.465 and $9.740 before closing at $9.687, up two-tenths of a cent from Wednesday’s close.

Living up to its Encore Acquisition Co. moniker, the Fort Worth-based company announced late Thursday its second $400 million oil and natural gas asset acquisition in a little more than a week. The company’s latest agreement is with Howell Petroleum Corp. and Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Onshore LP, subsidiaries of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., to purchase oil and natural gas properties in the Williston Basin in Montana and North Dakota for $410 million in cash.

Living up to its Encore Acquisition Co. moniker, the Fort Worth-based company announced late Thursday its second $400 million oil and natural gas asset acquisition in a little more than a week. The company’s latest agreement is with Howell Petroleum Corp. and Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Onshore LP, subsidiaries of Anadarko Petroleum Corp., to purchase oil and natural gas properties in the Williston Basin in Montana and North Dakota for $410 million in cash.

With winter finally living up to its cold-weather reputation in just about every nook and cranny of Canada and the U.S. except peninsular Florida, cash prices spiked at virtually all points Tuesday in response to skyrocketing heating load. Quite a few gains were in triple digits and several Northeast citygates posted increases of more than $3.