Recorded

Earthquakes such as the one that forced a wastewater disposal well in Youngstown, OH, to be closed at the beginning of the year can be avoided if oil, natural gas and service companies are more knowledgeable of the local and regional geology.

The Ohio company that owns a wastewater disposal well in Youngstown shut down by state regulators for allegedly triggering a series of earthquakes will pay for a study to determine the cause of the seismic activity.

The cash market recorded a mix of gains and losses Tuesday, but bulls were slightly in the ascendancy as flat to higher numbers tended to be both more numerous and have larger increases than the falling ones, all of which were in single digits.

A La Nina weather phenomenon, which contributed to extreme weather around the globe in the first six months of this year, has reemerged in the tropical Pacific Ocean and is forecast to gradually strengthen and continue into winter, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday.

Pipeline flows recorded by Bentek Energy LLC show that Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale region has surpassed the Fort Worth Basin/Barnett Shale region of North Texas in natural gas output. The two shale plays themselves are neck and neck in output. Signs are that the Barnett will soon bow to the Haynesville, the new Lower 48 shale play king.

The U.S. solar industry recorded year/year growth in 2010 amounting to a 67% increase in the industry’s market value compared to 2009, hitting $6 billion last year, compared to $3.6 billion the previous year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and GTM Research. SEIA called solar a “bright spot on the U.S. economy” last year as the nation’s fastest growing energy sector. There were 878 MW of photovoltaic (PV) installations and 78 MW of concentrating solar power installed last year. The PV market made the most significant strides, more than doubling installation totals from 2009, according to the report, “U.S. Solar Market Insight: Year-in-Review 2010.” Nationally, 16 states each installed more than 10 MW of PV last year, increasing from only four states in 2007. The top 10 states in order were California, New Jersey, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Florida, North Carolina and Texas. The study indicated that price declines were an “important factor” in the solar expansion last year.

Pipeline flows recorded by Bentek Energy LLC show that Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale region has surpassed the Fort Worth Basin/Barnett Shale region of North Texas in natural gas output. The two shale plays themselves are neck and neck in output. While it’s too soon to call a new Lower 48 shale king, all signs are that the Barnett will soon bow to the Haynesville.

Multi-dollar plunges at several Northeast citygates stood out as most points in other regions were either flat or recorded changes up and down of about a nickel or less Thursday. Although leaving temperatures around freezing or not much higher in its wake, a winter storm was starting to move out of the Northeast, and other areas were seeing a variety of cold to cool conditions that failed to create impressive amounts of heating load. Cash quotes also continued to get no backing from the previous day’s 5.5-cent fall by April futures.

For a change Monday’s trading featured most Northeast locations taking big dives while prices recorded fairly strong increases at a large majority of other points. Most sections of the North American market can expect to endure some severe winter weather this week.