Rampage

Global deepwater drilling activity is going on a rampage, with spending set to more than double over the coming decade, according to Wood Mackenzie.

More than 3.5 million electric customers in eight states who lost power during Hurricane Ike’s rampage two weeks ago have had power restored, and an army of repair crews are now focusing their efforts on three adjacent Houston-area counties where there were still 454,650 outages at the end of the week.

Taking some time off following last week’s trading rampage, April natural gas futures on Monday kept their movement to a minimum. Last week, April natural gas futures went for a run, settling 72.8 cents higher on Friday than the previous week’s settle.

Continuing its current exploration and production acquisition strategy. Houston-based Rocky Mountain Energy Corp. (RMEC) said it has signed an agreement to purchase a group of oil and gas properties located in Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska and Colorado for $11.2 million.

Once again the bulls were on a rampage Tuesday, and sourcesexpected them to still be running today. Increases of about a dimeor more at all points dominated the cash market for the secondstraight day. Prices got support from a cold snap in thenortheastern U.S. and eastern Canada, hot weather from Californiathrough the Southwest into Texas and Louisiana and parts of theMidcontinent, and continued screen strength—both in natural gasand crude oil futures. Gas gained just over a dime, and crude rosejust over a dollar to finish above $22/bbl.