Midcontinent

Newfield Exploration Co. said it will spend about $1.7 billion this year on exploration and production activity, with two-thirds directed to oil plays and the rest focused on liquids-rich natural gas. The amount is equivalent to the company’s estimate of 2011 cash flow from operations.

Triple-digit plunges in the Northeast and at some locations in the Midcontinent and West led a price downturn across the board Friday. Moderating temperatures in the short-term forecast for several areas, along with some easing of supply shortfalls in the Southwest and the usual weekend decline of industrial load, contributed to arresting the market’s general blizzard-based strength of the preceding four days.

Friday lows in the teens and 20s stretching from the Rockies and Western Canada through the Midcontinent/Midwest into the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast and Eastern Canada were insufficient to prevent spot prices from continuing to fall at nearly all points Thursday, although the declines were smaller than those of the day before in most cases.

Gas-on-gas competition is a concept long established in the industry. How about shale-on-shale competition?

Forecasts of high temperatures on either side of 90 in many regions and even greater in the South, Midcontinent and parts of the West revived the spot market by generally small amounts Thursday. A tropical wave was still too close to West Africa to be a factor, but the previous day’s 4.8-cent futures drop had essentially no impact as a negative guide for cash prices.

Midcontinent Express Pipeline LLC (MEP) Friday asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization to begin service on expansion facilities associated with the 500-mile Oklahoma-to-Alabama pipeline that provides shale gas producers with greater market access.

Low temperatures sinking into the teens, single digits and even below zero Thursday in areas from the Northeast through the Midcontinent/Midwest, Upper Plains, Canada and parts of the Rockies failed to faze either the cash or futures markets Wednesday. Softness remained the order of the day. Physical prices fell at all but three points as conditions were due to stay relatively moderate across the southern tier of states and in much of the western U.S. outside the Rockies.

Low temperatures sinking into the teens, single digits and even below zero Thursday in areas from the Northeast through the Midcontinent/Midwest, Upper Plains, Canada and parts of the Rockies failed to faze either the cash or futures markets Wednesday. Softness remained the order of the day. Physical prices fell at all but three points as conditions were due to stay relatively moderate across the southern tier of states and in much of the western U.S. outside the Rockies.

The Gulf Coast has seen major increases of pipeline capacity in such recent projects as Midcontinent Express and the Southeast Supply Header, but even more are on the way. Many of them are aimed at serving the production needs of such prolific plays as the Haynesville (northwest Louisiana and East Texas) and Fayetteville (Arkansas) shales.