Pattern

February natural gas is set to open 6 cents lower Tuesday morning at $2.27 as weather models call for the return of El-Nino-type patterns by mid-month. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

October natural gas is expected to open 4 cents lower Monday morning at $2.57 as traders factor in a combo of weak weather and weak technicals. Overnight oil markets vaulted higher.

August natural gas is expected to open unchanged Monday morning at $2.77 as traders note no substantive changes to the near-term weather outlook. Overnight oil markets softened.

August natural gas is expected to open unchanged Monday morning at $2.77 as traders note no substantive changes to the near-term weather outlook. Overnight oil markets softened.

March natural gas is set to open 2 cents lower at $2.73 as hopes for market-moving cold continue to slip away. Overnight oil markets tumbled.

December natural gas is set to open 15 cents higher Monday morning as key weather models trended sharply colder. Overnight oil markets gained.

North American oil and natural gas producers are in the “middle to latter stages of the land grab” for unconventional properties, but there still will be opportunities down the road for others to pitch a claim, said Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co. Inc.’s (TPH) Bobby Tudor.

Energy industry leaders, while directly challenging the opposition, called on the more than 1,600 people attending the Shale Gas Insight 2011 conference in Philadelphia Wednesday to help promote a national energy policy that significantly expands the role of natural gas.

Gasco Energy Inc. said Thursday it plans to drill two conventional test wells for oil this fall in the Green River Formation, part of the company’s plans to de-risk thousands of acres it holds in the Uinta Basin in eastern Utah.