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The 2011 Atlantic hurricane season may not be as active as previously predicted, producing only as many tropical storms as the 1995-2010 average (15 named storms, including eight hurricanes, four of them Category Three or greater), but the United States can expect two or three hurricanes to make landfall this year, forecasters at WSI Corp. said Tuesday.

No snowstorms are expected except for possibly in some mountainous areas of the West, but quite a few folks may be getting a reminder Tuesday that the winter season isn’t all that long departed. The chillier forecasts, aided slightly by the return of industrial load from its weekend decline, resulted in flat to higher prices at a large majority of trading points Monday.

Chevron Corp. has its hand in nearly every natural gas and oil producing basin on- and offshore around the world. But for the long term, natural gas development will be the driver, and U.S. shale plays offer “opportunities” to sustain organic growth, the company’s exploration and production (E&P) chief said last Monday.

Something that the market had seen almost none of for quite a long time — higher prices across the board — occurred Wednesday.

Although there are quite a few parts of North America as cold as or colder than the Northeast, that region remained the only one where major heating load was having a substantive impact on prices. At nearly all other locations moderate softness was returning Tuesday.

Is the latter half of January going to be extra-cold (quite bullish) or merely seasonable (somewhat bearish)? A lot of money could be riding on making the best strategic trading choices in such circumstances, and a few traders have indicated that they’re not sure what path to follow.

Wednesday’s cash market was quite a bit weaker than Tuesday’s; triple-digit declines continued at several Northeast citygates, but they were joined this time with falling numbers almost everywhere else as end-of-the-year weather forecasts were getting considerably milder.

The attack of very cold weather that gave a strong price-boosting start to the cash market as the week began lost quite a bit of its bullish influence Tuesday. Even the previous day’s prompt-month futures gain of 13.9 cents and the lingering effect of widespread freezing lows were unable to keep cash numbers from mixed movement and staying close to either side of flat.

The number of parties challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) December endangerment finding has grown into quite a crowd that includes three states and a number of industry groups.