Majority

Looking much like the previous day’s market, prices fell at a large majority of points Friday while soaring at several Northeast citygates. The main difference was that all of Thursday’s Northeast gains were less than a dollar, but on Friday several were in triple digits.

It wasn’t surprising to see a majority of points softening again Friday as weather continued to be milder than in most winters and the weekend was taking a bite out of industrial demand. What may have been a bit surprising to some was that quite a few locations were flat or managed to rack up small gains to keep mixed price movement in play.

The Pennsylvania state Senate met briefly Tuesday before adjourning until Jan. 17, but it did not discuss legislation to impose a fee on unconventional natural gas drilling. Until the Senate takes action on House Bill 1950 the legislation cannot proceed to a conference committee for a process where members of both chambers and both parties will hammer out differences. Although current lawmakers are in office until November, many have urged the General Assembly to pass something before Gov. Tom Corbett announces his budget priorities in early February. The six-member committee would include three senators and three representatives, with two members of each chamber coming from the majority party and one coming from the minority.

Trends toward milder temperatures prompted price declines at a large majority of points Friday. The bearish weekend impact of reduced industrial load was heightened by the Christmas holiday being taken off Monday.

Generally minor softness has lasted only one day this week so far, as a large majority of locations resumed climbs Thursday that once again were mostly in single digits. Patches of snow and rain stretched from the Rockies to the Northeast and snow was even expected to reach the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas by Friday. Subfreezing lows will become more frequent at least through Friday before many areas begin to warm again.

After two days of mostly small upticks to begin the week, it was time Wednesday for a large majority of small gains to be the market’s main feature. Winter may have officially begun Tuesday, but the new season wasn’t readily evident, judging from the generally mild forecasts for its second day in most of the eastern third of the U.S.

Wednesday’s market was something of a mirror image of the one on Tuesday, with a majority of locations shifting to reverse gear. Flat numbers were common again, but while small gains had dominated Tuesday, more points were recording small increases Wednesday. Heating load is relatively scarce at this point as most areas experience a fairly mild prelude to the official start of winter, and traders were mindful of the upcoming storage report being bearish in comparison to year-ago and five-year average withdrawals.

A moderate majority of points were up again Tuesday as a mix of rain and snow is expected to move into the Northeast and parts of the Mid-Atlantic before fading Thursday, and except for the eastern end of the South most regions can expect bottom-end temperatures ranging from the vicinity of freezing to much lower. Monday’s 12.3-cent screen dive had only a moderate impact on the softening locations.

The global economy has stabilized or is improving, which will lead to more investments and job growth in 2012 for the oil and gas industry, according to a majority of energy executives surveyed by Ernst & Young LLP.