Losses

Natural gas cash prices overall surged 17 cents on average Monday led by mega-gains extending from the Rockies to Chicago. Without losses posted at a handful of Northeast points, the average gain becomes 21 cents.

Shares of EV Energy Partners LP (EVEP) took a hit Friday after the company announced net losses for the fourth quarter and full-year 2012, and said it could take anywhere from one month to the rest of the year to sell most of its acreage in the eastern Ohio portion of the Utica Shale.

Cash market trading yielded a decline of 2 cents overall Friday, but if the sizable losses on Tennessee and Algonquin are factored out, the physical market scored a 2-cent advance.

EQT Corp. announced Thursday that horizontal drilling in the Marcellus Shale helped the company achieve record sales volumes overall and in the Marcellus in 2012 — the latter an 85% increase from 2011 — as it posted net income of $183.4 million for the year.

Cash prices on average fell 14 cents Tuesday for Wednesday delivery with the Northeast leading the charge lower. Losses were widespread and occurred at all trading points. The market is being forced to take on differing weather forecasts with some anticipating a widespread cold carrying all the way to the East Coast, while others are more mild. At the close, February was 4.8 cents lower at $3.218 and March had lost 4.7 cents to $3.234. February crude oil shed 4 cents to $93.15/bbl.

Physical natural gas prices averaged about a penny lower for weekend and Monday deliveries, with dollar-plus losses at eastern and Northeast pipes offsetting widespread gains at Gulf, Midcontinent and California points.

San Antonio-based Abraxas Petroleum Corp. is finalizing talks to sell its 25% working interest in the Nordheim Project in the Eagle Ford Shale to an institutional buyer for about $20 million, the company said Monday.

During the third quarter Irving, TX-based Pioneer Natural Resources Co. set a new production record in the Eagle Ford Shale, where it said its choke management program continues to improve well performance. Continued development of the Wolfcamp Shale in West Texas is setting the play up to be a “significant” contributor to production growth in the future, the company said.

Boosted by exceptional performance from horizontal drilling programs in the U.S. onshore, and in particular the Wattenberg Field in Colorado, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. broke records for liquids sales volumes in the third quarter. The Wattenberg’s production profile is “essentially straight up,” said an executive.