Paint

A pair of recent winter weather forecasts — from AccuWeather.com and Andover, MA-based WSI Corp. — paint a picture of colder-than-normal months ahead for much of the country, especially the heavily populated Northeast.

Natural gas futures trading on Wednesday was akin to watching paint dry as the May contract traded within a tidy 22-cent range from $6.940 to $7.160, making it the second half-hearted effort to sub-$7 prices in as many days. The prompt month ended up settling at $7.069, up less than half a cent from Tuesday’s close.

Investors looking for a rise in exploration and production stocks will be “climbing a wall of worry” at least in the near term, according to FAC/Equities analyst Robert Christensen Jr. There are so many negatives, including packed gas storage inventories, no winter weather to speak of, and low oil and gas prices. But the plummeting rig count and declining production point to a turnaround by the middle of 2002, he said.

Investors looking for a rise in exploration and production stocks will be “climbing a wall of worry” at least in the near term, according to FAC/Equities analyst Robert Christensen Jr. There are so many negatives, including packed gas storage inventories, no winter weather to speak of, and low oil and gas prices. But the plummeting rig count and declining production point to a turnaround by the middle of 2002, he said.

Global Marine’s worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for July 2001 dropped 0.3% from the previous month’s SCORE as dayrates continued to decline, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Rapidly declining natural gas prices this year have had a dampening affect on drilling activity in the Gulf.

Global Marine’s worldwide SCORE, or Summary of Current Offshore Rig Economics, for July 2001 dropped 0.3% from the previous month’s SCORE as dayrates continued to decline, particularly in the Gulf of Mexico. Rapidly declining natural gas prices this year have had a dampening affect on drilling activity in the Gulf.