Pricing

National Oilwell Varco Inc.’s (NOV) backlog for capital equipment orders jumped by one-third from the end of March to the end of June, the oilfield services operator said Tuesday.

Encana Corp. has close to 11.7 million net acres from which to pick and choose for development in North America’s onshore, but the Horn River Basin in British Columbia (BC) is drawing special attention, in part because of the promise it holds for natural gas demand in the oilsands, as well as promising liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, company officials said Tuesday.

Faced with pricing uncertainty, anticipated decrease in U.S. demand and a shifting regulatory landscape, Canadian gas companies will need to look beyond the United States if they are to retain market share and remain competitive, according to Ernst & Young.

Faced with pricing uncertainty, anticipated decrease in U.S. demand and a shifting regulatory landscape, Canadian gas companies will need to look beyond the United States if they are to retain market share and remain competitive, according to Ernst & Young.

Solid reasons exist for bulls not to be discouraged by the current “pricing malaise” in U.S. natural gas markets, according to Deutsche Bank (DB).

Solid reasons exist for bulls not to be discouraged by the current “pricing malaise” in U.S. natural gas markets, according to Deutsche Bank (DB).

The vagaries of spot gas pricing were in play again as some areas with colder forecasts for Wednesday, such as the Northeast, saw quotes record sizeable declines Tuesday, while numbers in still relatively moderate areas, such as the as the western end of the South (New Orleans and Houston), moved higher.

Even with three days of flat to much stronger pricing Monday through Wednesday, only Marcellus Shale numbers in northeast Pennsylvania were able to eke out a small gain during the week ending Thursday. Other plays fell 6-12 cents during that period.

The trend of near-flat pricing earlier this week continued Thursday. Any remaining storage injection buying and the previous day’s minuscule gain of 1.1 cent by November futures were largely offset by mild weather virtually everywhere outside parts of the desert Southwest and by the continuing lack of any tropical storm threat to Gulf of Mexico production.