Recovering

Price gains were virtually across the board Wednesday and were larger than the prior day’s mostly minuscule upticks. Cooling load is recovering in many areas from its slump during the first two-thirds of August, and Tuesday’s 10.4-cent increase by September futures was an additional bullish factor.

Looking to replicate the numerous North American successes in recovering natural gas reserves from unconventional shale plays, a number of oil and gas majors are eager to take the new drilling technology across the pond to Europe, but Raymond James analyst Pavel Molchanov warns that while the resource potential is “definitely there,” the process “will be a marathon and not a sprint.”

With former Hurricane Ida little more than a rainy memory and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production recovering rapidly from the shut-ins that had opened the week, cash traders again focused on generally moderate weather forecasts for the intermediate term and the previous day’s futures weakness in continuing to push most points lower Wednesday.

Recovering from Thursday’s 30-cent swoon and giving the recent rally a second lease on life, October natural gas futures pushed higher again during Friday’s regular session to close at $3.778, up 32 cents from Thursday’s finish and 81.8 cents higher than the previous week’s close.

There’s good news and less-good news in a report released Friday by Bentek LLC: Industrial demand is recovering, but a return to pre-recession levels is not expected until the end of the third quarter in 2011.

There’s good news and less-good news in a report released Friday by Bentek LLC: Industrial demand is recovering, but a return to pre-recession levels is not expected until the end of the third quarter in 2011.

Energy traders still recovering from the October crude contract’s blowout expiration Monday were treated to a small corrective action Tuesday, while October natural gas futures tested the upper parameters of the recent trading range. November crude dropped $2.76 to close at $106.61/bbl and October natural gas ventured temporarily above $8 before finishing at $7.931, up 27.3 cents from Monday’s close.

Three oversight groups Wednesday called on Congress to restore the level of the Department of Interior’s (DOI) audit and compliance staff responsible for recovering oil and natural gas royalties to the same level it was at in fiscal year (FY) 2000.

Mixed cash price movement continued Wednesday, but there were no gains outside the still-recovering Rockies other than on intrastate Midcontinent pipe OGT. Softness dominated the rest of the market despite producers starting to evacuate Gulf of Mexico facilities because of relatively light cooling load in most areas and the screen’s 8.5-cent decline Tuesday being followed up by a much larger loss Wednesday.