Regain

Natural gas trade between Canada and the United States was up in both directions in mid-2012, but it still had far to go to regain ground lost in the global economic recession, according to a scorecard kept by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

Natural gas trade between Canada and the United States revived in both directions during mid-2012 but still had far to go to regain all the ground lost in the global economic recession, according to a scorecard kept by the U.S. Department of Energy.

A federal judge in Erie, PA, has approved a class action lawsuit settlement that could total more than $22 million in a case filed by thousands of landowners in the Marcellus Shale play against Range Resources Appalachia LLC over royalty calculations.

One New York county in the midst of the Marcellus Shale may be looking to promote natural gas drilling in an effort to regain jobs that have left the area since the Empire State instituted a de facto moratorium on drilling two years ago.

January natural gas futures were able to regain some of Monday’s 11.3-cent loss in Tuesday trading, which was largely devoid of meaningful direction. With little in the way of fresh news to motivate traders, attention turned to the more distant portions of the price curve where longer-term opportunities may lurk. At the close of trading January futures rose 4.6 cents to $5.715 and February added 6.0 cents to $5.712. February crude oil gained 68 cents to $74.40/bbl.

Though downgraded to a Category Three hurricane and still well out to sea, Hurricane Bill could regain Category Four status on Friday as it rolls over warmer ocean waters and on towards Bermuda, the National Weather Service’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) said Thursday.

The cash market found enough cold weather remaining in the Midwest and Northeast and parts of the West to regain its footing and register generally small gains at a majority of points Tuesday. The return of industrial load after a holiday weekend hiatus also helped fuel the mini-rally.

After dropping a dime in a knee-jerk reaction to slightly bearish storage data (42 Bcf injection) released at 10:30 a.m. EDT, natural gas futures chopped sideways for the rest of the session Thursday as traders groped for fair value in a market that has witnessed a 58-cent trading range since Oct. 1. As it turned out, nothing was settled, with about half the traders, brokers and analysts surveyed by NGI yesterday expecting higher prices Friday and half looking for more weakness. The November contract closed at $3.828, down 9 cents for the session and just above support at $3.795.

After stumbling last heating season Canadian natural-gas exports show signs of getting back on their feet, but when they will resume growing — or even whether they can — remains an open question. For the first time since the onset of energy deregulation and free trade, exports fell in the opening half of the current natural-gas contract year ending Oct. 31, according to records of the National Energy Board.