Primarily

Although flat to nearly 30 cents higher numbers continued in parts of the cash market Tuesday — primarily in the Midcontinent/Midwest, Southwest basins, California and the Pacific Northwest/Western Canada areas — most points were still in softening mode as cooling load remains fairly meager for what is often the hottest month of the year and prior-day screen guidance was negative again.

Overall double-digit losses by cash prices Monday were driven primarily by Friday’s fall of 39.6 cents by August futures and to a lesser degree by declining cooling load in the Northeast and Pacific Northwest. The return of industrial load after the weekend and modest warming trends in the South, Midwest and Rockies was largely unable to avert softness in most of the physical market.

Most of the cash market was able to rally Friday, spurred primarily by the previous day’s 29.4-cent rebound by August futures and to some extent by forecasts of slightly higher heat levels during the weekend in the South, Northeast and Pacific Northwest. The overall move higher defied cooling trends in the Midwest, Rockies and inland California and the loss of industrial load that occurs during a weekend.

Nearly all of the cash market was on the rise Tuesday, pushed primarily by the previous day’s 15.2-cent screen gain and secondarily by colder weather returning to the Rockies. The overall firmness defied moderate temperatures in many areas, but likely derived some support from storage purchases as the refill season gets under way with a significant Gulf of Mexico supply constraint in the form of the Independence Hub outage (see Daily GPI, April 14; April 10).

Dutch financier ING Group is setting up a Houston office to focus on upstream services primarily for the exploration and production (E&P) sector.

The Florida citygate was the sole location left out of falling prices at all other points Tuesday. The overall bearishness was primarily due to the previous day’s plunge of 76.8 cents by April futures, and to a lesser degree to the relatively moderate shoulder-month weather that several areas are experiencing in mid-March.

Losses of up to a dime at several scattered points, primarily in Appalachia and the Gulf Coast, kept price advances from running the board Monday. Predictions of above-normal temperatures this week in the eastern two-thirds of the U.S. and buzz about the possibility of a disturbance moving toward southern Florida from the Bahamas strengthening and getting into the Gulf of Mexico were the chief market boosters.

St. Mary Land & Exploration Co. said it intends to sell a package of noncore oil and gas properties, located primarily in the Rockies and Midcontinent regions. A preliminary estimate indicates that the package represents approximately 74 Bcfe of proved oil and gas reserves, the company said. The sales price of the properties will be determined by a competitive bidding process. Denver-based St. Mary Land & Exploration will complete the divestiture in late December if it receives what it believes is an appropriate offer. The company also announced that it repurchased a total of about 791,000 shares of outstanding common stock in the open market at a weighted average cost of $32.82 a share.

While terrorist attacks on Middle East energy infrastructure have spooked primarily U.S. crude markets over the last few years, Monday’s major attack on Mexico’s natural gas pipeline infrastructure, the second in the past three months, helped to jolt natural gas futures 39 cents higher to close Monday’s regular session at $5.891 after trading between $5.455 and $5.920 on the day.