Managed

It was a frustrating day Tuesday for Marathon Oil Corp. investors, who questioned how the producer managed to make less money in the third quarter than a year earlier, despite record oil and natural gas prices. Marathon blamed asset sales, field declines, hurricanes and maintenance for its 21% tumble in income compared to the third quarter a year earlier. The company also said its production this year will be lower than previously expected.

It was a frustrating day Tuesday for Marathon Oil Corp. investors, who questioned how the producer managed to make less money in the third quarter than a year earlier, despite record oil and natural gas prices. Marathon blamed asset sales, field declines, hurricanes and maintenance for its 21% tumble in income compared to the third quarter a year earlier. The company also said its production this year will be lower than previously expected.

The cash market recorded a very mild rally Monday in which a few points managed gains in the teens, while the majority ranged from barely lower to a dime higher. Intra-Alberta saw the only significant decline of nearly C10 cents.

Prices managed to eke out more mostly small gains Thursday in decidedly non-volatile trading as weather support continued to turn slightly more bullish. A few scattered points turned in essentially flat performances. Nearly all of the gains were in single digits, but they ranged to a little more than 20 cents in the Rockies, where some of the coldest U.S. temperatures — and even a bit of snow — currently reside.

As traders had anticipated Friday, a holiday weekend blast of winter weather that managed to bring freezing rain and snow into parts of the South was too short and not severe enough to keep prices rising Tuesday. Instead, dollar-plus losses at several Northeast citygates led overall softening that yielded non-Northeast declines ranging from a dime or so in the Pacific Northwest to 40 cents.

While futures slipped a few cents Wednesday, cash prices managed gains of 5-20 cents mainly on the continuing wide gap between current cash and November futures and the cool temperatures and slightly stronger demand in the Midwest and Northeast market areas.

Duke Energy on Wednesday completed the sale of its exploration and production subsidiary, Duke Energy Hydrocarbons LLC (DEH), to a private company for $83 million.

Prices managed to sustain this week’s near-solid upward price movement Thursday, but there were hints that the bullish streak may be coming to an end. New upticks ranged from about a nickel to a quarter, but were mostly moderate at around a dime or less.

It was a close call, but the natural gas futures market managed to keep its string of gains alive Wednesday as the June contract edged higher for the sixth straight session. Although Wednesday’s 0.6-cent advance may seem pedestrian next to recent gains of 18 and 33 cents, the session was anything but a bore as prices soared to a new, 11-week high at $6.44 and gyrated within a wide, 31-cent trading range. June closed in the upper half that range at $6.314.