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Physical natural gas prices continued lower and on average lost about 5.5 cents in Friday trading for weekend and Monday deliveries. A few points were unchanged, but all other pricing points failed to make it out of the loss column. Mild weather projections prompted downward movement at not only West Coast points but other locations servicing westbound gas to California. Eastern gas fell as well as monthly basis differentials slid.

A consensus is forming among U.S. government and private energy analysts that barring an unusual weather event — or an unusual event period — North American natural gas prices likely will be low through the summer. Some have thrown in the towel for higher prices through the summer and fall, and instead are looking ahead to what they hope will be a return to normal winter weather that could boost prices beginning in 2013.

Chevron Corp.’s first quarter profits should exceed those from the final period of 2011, in part because of lower costs and higher oil prices, but it still will be impacted because of lower natural gas prices, the San Ramon, CA-based major said late Tuesday in an interim report.

Companies participating in NGI’s quarterly North American natural gas marketer survey reported nearly the same results in 4Q2011 as in the year-ago period, and a 1% decline in full-year 2011, compared with 2010. read more

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) Monday announced that it will open a comment period and hold a series of public scoping meetings to collect information to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for two proposed oil and natural gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico’s (GOM) Eastern Planning Area.

This year is the first in a multi-year period of growth for Noble Energy Inc. as the company realizes the payoff from “multiple years of exploration success,” CEO Charles Davidson told financial analysts Thursday during an earnings conference call. However, dry gas production from the Marcellus Shale is not part of the windfall, at least not for a while.

Prices fell at all but two points Tuesday in the start of the third holiday-shortened trading period in less than a month. The softness appeared to defy cooling trends forecast for Wednesday in the Midwest and South while the Northeast gave up Friday’s big gains even with lows below freezing remaining in the next-day forecast.

Hess Corp. announced Thursday that it would spend $6.8 billion in global capital expenditures (capex) in 2012, more than one-third of which would target unconventional sources in the United States, specifically the Bakken, Eagle Ford and Utica shales.

MarkWest Energy Partners LP has closed on its acquisition of partner The Energy and Minerals Group’s (EMG) 49% stake in MarkWest Liberty Midstream & Resources LLC.