Northerly

In the bush around the Norman Wells inlet to the most northerly oil conduit on the continent, six producers have snapped up 8,998 square kilometers (3,473 square miles) of drilling rights leases by pledging to spend C$534 million on exploration over the next nine years.

October natural gas futures values plummeted on Monday after the three hurricanes on the radar Friday all chose a more northerly path over the weekend, sparing the Gulf Coast and U.S. energy interests yet again. Another theory is that the back and forth trading of the last week reflects the normal ebb and flow of a range-bound market. The prompt-month contract Monday reached a low of $3.806 before closing out the regular session at $3.822, down 20.2 cents from Friday’s finish.

Prices at a few scattered locations were flat to slightly lower Tuesday, but most of the cash market recorded gains ranging from a little less than a nickel to a quarter; most were in double digits. The gains were attributed largely to continued demand for storage injections with the traditional injection season still less than two weeks old.