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Active rigs in U.S. shale and tight sands basins gained 1% in the week ending April 1 to hit 981 rigs, up from 972 the previous week, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

It wasn’t a complete upturn, but the hints in the previous day’s market that a lessening of overall weakness might lead to a general rally Thursday came to fruition. Abetted by the May futures increase of 9.2 cents Wednesday and a rather slow easing of cold weather in much of the northern U.S. and Canada, a mixed market saw gains outnumbering losses.

Westcoast ended Wednesday a systemwide high-linepack OFO that had been implemented on the previous Thursday.

The U.S. solar industry recorded year/year growth in 2010 amounting to a 67% increase in the industry’s market value compared to 2009, hitting $6 billion last year, compared to $3.6 billion the previous year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. SEIA called solar a “bright spot on the U.S. economy” last year as the nation’s fastest growing energy sector. There were 878 MW of photovoltaic (PV) installations and 78 MW of concentrating solar power installed last year. The PV market made the most significant strides, more than doubling installation totals from 2009, according to the report, “U.S. Solar Market Insight: Year-in-Review 2010.” Nationally, 16 states each installed more than 10 MW of PV last year, increasing from only four states in 2007. The top 10 states in order were California, New Jersey, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina and Texas. The study indicated that price declines were an “important factor” in the solar expansion last year.

Departing from the previous three days of trading this week when the cash market moved in lockstep — higher on Monday and Wednesday and lower on Tuesday — the nation’s average’s on Thursday produced a mixed bag, which was impacted a bit by the morning’s “bullish” natural gas storage report from the Energy Information Administration for the week ending March 11.

The market continued to see mixed, mostly near-flat price movement but was showing signs of perking up again by following the previous day’s losses at a majority of points with moderate gains being prevalent Thursday.

Northern Natural Gas, which had issued System Overrun Limitations in all market-area zones starting the previous Saturday (Jan. 15), is keeping them in effect through at least their ninth day by extending them into Sunday.

National Fuel Gas Co.’s exploration subsidiary is adding 42 Bcfe of proved natural gas reserves to its Marcellus Shale holdings in a deal with joint venture (JV) partner EOG Resources Inc.

FERC has issued UGI Storage Co. a certificate to acquire from UGI Central Penn Gas Inc. (UGI CPG), own and operate 14.7 Bcf of underground gas storage capacity in north-central Pennsylvania, in the heart of the state’s portion of the Marcellus Shale play.