Records

Prices fell across the board Tuesday as traders had anticipated, and most declines were larger than the ones on Monday. The usual suspects depressed the market: little hot-weather load in most areas, the previous day’s futures plunge, a sense of burgeoning storage inventories overall (despite the fire loss at the Moss Bluff facility) and a streak of no tropical storm threats to offshore production that is approaching two weeks now.

Despite reaching a high on the day of $6.25 in early trading and having the support of strong crude action, September gas futures were unable to hold onto, much less build on, the gains as the contract declined to settle at $6.112, down 6.8 cents on the day.

Second quarter earnings and cash flow for exploration and production (E&P) companies are forecast to be “at or above record levels, up 0-10% sequentially,” according to a report by CreditSights energy consultants. Earnings are expected to be driven by continued commodity price and refining margin strength.

Second quarter earnings and cash flow for exploration and production (E&P) companies are forecast to be “at or above record levels, up 0-10% sequentially,” according to a report by CreditSights energy consultants. Earnings are expected to be driven by continued commodity price and refining margin strength.

North American natural gas, which helped propel EnCana Corp. to huge profits last year, will continue to be the “primary focus” for the Calgary-based company, CEO Gwyn Morgan said last week. The company on Thursday reported 2003 earnings of US$2.36 billion ($4.92/share), up 183% from pro forma 2002.

North American natural gas, which makes up two-thirds of EnCana Corp.’s current production, will continue to be its “primary focus” for the long term, CEO Gwyn Morgan said Thursday, while reporting 2003 earnings of US$2.36 billion ($4.92/share), up 183% from pro forma 2002.

As some had expected, this week’s running of the bulls ground to a halt Thursday, weakened by yet another larger than normal September storage injection and modified predictions of colder near-term weather. A few scattered points were close to flat, while the majority fell from about 3 cents to nearly 15 cents.

ExxonMobil Corp. broke earnings records for the first quarter, more than tripling income from a year ago on higher commodity prices and accounting changes. However, its oil equivalent and liquids production were flat, while natural gas production increased slightly.

With end-of-March storage at the lowest level since it began keeping records in 1976, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its short-term energy outlook for April said the gas markets will require a combination of high spot prices during the spring and summer, strong gas drilling and development activity and normal summer weather in order to achieve normal inventories by next winter. Absent these conditions, it believes the market could see a new round of gas price spikes during the 2003-2004 heating season.