Minor

At first glance Thursday’s market looked similar to the one a day earlier: mostly small gains outweighing minor losses. However, there were fewer and smaller double-digit increases Thursday, while at the same time there were more and larger declines. The trend hinted at the possibility of cash numbers ending the week the same way they started, with softness dominant.

ConocoPhillips is facing some takeaway issues for its liquids in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas, but that’s only a minor blip on the screen and has done nothing to reduce the company’s enthusiasm for unconventional plays, executives said Wednesday.

As a result of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Phase II Greenhouse Gas tailoring rule, which went into effect in July, minor sources of pollution — including gas processing plants, fractionating plants, compressor stations and other midstream energy assets — are now considered major source pollutants and thus are subject to more stringent regulation, said a partner with a major Washington, DC-based law firm.

Petrohawk Energy Corp. got into the Eagle Ford Shale and moved fast. Those are the keys to success in shale plays, the company’s vice president of exploration, Charles Cusack, told a Houston audience Wednesday.

The cash market bowed to a general lack of significant heating or cooling load and only minor flooding disruptions of production in South Louisiana in retreating to mostly near-flat numbers and several small losses Tuesday, although moderate upticks were recorded at a majority of points.

As state regulators continue to study a possible connection between drilling waste disposal wells in Arkansas’s Fayetteville Shale and a flurry of minor earthquakes in the area, the tremors continue unabated, including a 4.7-magnitude earthquake Sunday night and at least 19 measurable earthquakes on Monday.

Two bills aimed at revamping West Virginia’s quarter-century-old drilling regulations are slated for introduction in the state legislature this week. The measures, variously directed at water management and horizontal drilling, would also increase horizontal well permit fees from $400 to $10,000.

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has denied a motion by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. to dismiss a case brought by Dimock Township, PA, residents who claim that their health and property has been harmed by the producer’s natural gas activities.

Prior-day screen dive, slight retreats in southern heat have only minor impact.