Pull

With the natural gas price slump now being measured in terms of years instead of months, producers continue to pull rigs from dry gas unconventional plays to pursue oil targets, according to NGI’s Shale Daily Unconventional Rig Count.

Marathon Oil Corp., which began 2012 as a pure-play exploration and production (E&P) company, has its sights trained on two big shale plays in the United States: the Eagle Ford and the Bakken, company officials said Wednesday.

The overall weather outlook remains mild to cool, but overnight lows in the 30s and 40s in parts of the Northeast, Rockies and Canada may have been enough to pull the cash market out of its recent slide Tuesday. Certainly the futures drop of 4.9 cents a day earlier didn’t contribute anything to the cause.

A decision by Encana Corp. to pull out of an investor conference this week ramped up rumors that the natural gas giant may be close to a joint venture agreement with China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) to develop its vast British Columbia (BC) shale holdings.

Natural gas futures continued its trek lower Monday as traders were forced to pull weather premium out of the market, and technical traders reset support parameters. At the close October futures fell 8.1 cents to $3.800 and November skidded 9.3 cents to $3.916. November crude oil rose 3 cents to $76.52/bbl although more deferred contracts fell.

Hints of an economic turnaround weren’t enough to pull natural gas marketing out of the doldrums during the first three months of this year, according to NGI’s 1Q2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking, which found that the 22 reporting marketers that also participated in the 1Q2009 survey transacted 122.85 Bcf/d in 1Q2010, an increase of less than 1% compared with the 121.87 Bcf/d they reported in the year-ago period. Those same 22 marketers reported a less than 1% decrease in NGI’s 4Q2009 survey compared with the year-ago period.

Hints of an economic turnaround weren’t enough to pull natural gas marketing out of the doldrums during the first three months of this year, according to NGI’s 1Q2010 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking, which found that the 22 reporting marketers that also participated in the 1Q2009 survey transacted 122.85 Bcf/d in 1Q2010, an increase of less than 1% compared with the 121.87 Bcf/d they reported in the year-ago period. Those same 22 marketers reported a less than 1% decrease in NGI’s 4Q2009 survey compared with the year-ago period.

While volume declines are suppressing bullish talk, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) thinks the industry may be poised to pull out of the bear market next year, and until then CEO Kelcy L. Warren doesn’t think there is much risk of shut-ins for his midstream business.

While volume declines are suppressing bullish talk, Energy Transfer Partners (ETP) thinks the industry may be poised to pull out of the bear market next year, and until then CEO Kelcy L. Warren doesn’t think there is much risk of shut-ins for his midstream business.