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With most new oil/gas exploration and production (E&P) moving to the more populated eastern slope of the Colorado Rockies from its traditional rural west-central focus, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association (COGA) embarked last month on a three-month public service advertising campaign as part of a broader community outreach on the use of hydraulic fracturing (fracking). So far the campaign is raising more interest than anticipated, according to COGA, and mostly because anti-fracking groups are crying foul.

With forecasts calling for below-normal temperatures in the western third of the U.S. this week, while normal and above-normal conditions are due in the more densely populated central and eastern thirds, respectively, prices dropped Friday at nearly all points. The typical weekend decline of industrial demand was an additional, albeit minor, bearish factor.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) has told state regulators that at least 34 miles of natural gas transmission pipelines running through highly populated areas have been incorrectly identified as “seamless,” similar to the section of 30-inch diameter pipe that ruptured in San Bruno, CA, last September.

With substantive heating load retreating largely to the sparsely populated Upper Plains of the U.S. and western half of Canada, and only a modest amount of power generation demand for air conditioning having built up in the southern U.S. to replace it, most points fell Monday.

Primarily due to some serious cooling load developing across the southern half of the U.S. (especially in the more heavily populated South) and abetted by a smidgen of chilly weather remaining in the forecast for the upper Northeast, the cash market was able to shrug off the previous day’s 2.9-cent decline by May futures and rise at a majority of points Wednesday.

For the next three months, forecaster WSI Corp. is forecasting cooler-than-normal temperatures in the central and southern Rockies, central and southern Plains and Pacific Northwest.Warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected in California and Nevada, the northern Rockies and Plains, as well as all areas east of the Mississippi River.

For the next three months, forecaster WSI Corp. is forecasting cooler-than-normal temperatures in the central and southern Rockies, central and southern Plains and Pacific Northwest.Warmer-than-normal temperatures are expected in California and Nevada, the northern Rockies and Plains, as well as all areas east of the Mississippi River.