Regard

A Pennsylvania Senate committee moved Marcellus Shale impact fee legislation forward on Wednesday, but observers suggest that the move is mainly procedural and say there is still much work to be done.

With a drilling industry begun in the mid-1800s and modifications to its decades-old oil and gas law in place, Ohio is well prepared for the kind of shale industry growth that has to varying degrees overwhelmed other states, according to Ohio Oil & Gas Association (OOGA) Executive Vice President Tom Stewart.

Geothermal technology advances are in the works with some of them coming as an offshoot of oil/gas drilling advancements, and this renewable resource sector is on the verge of a big job creation spurt as a result, according to a report released Friday by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) at the start of its annual trade expo in Sacramento, CA.

Mild weather seems to matter little as market recently follows prior-day futures guidance.

Mild weather seems to matter little as market recently follows prior-day futures guidance.

Trading within a 13-cent band on Wednesday, natural gas futures traders basically confirmed that the walls are basically closing in with regard to the ever-tightening trading range of the past few months. June natural gas on Wednesday ended up closing on the day’s high of $7.890, up 2.6 cents from Tuesday.

No one can really predict the weather, “but at the rate winteris setting in, by the middle of February we’ll be where we usuallyare in April” in regard to natural gas in storage, according toThomas A. Petrie, chairman of Petrie Parkman & Co. in Denver.

It was like old times again (if you can regard February as “oldtimes”) for traders Friday as weekend swing pricing leveled offwith little change from Thursday. It reminded some of the longperiods last month when there was practically no volatility in thecash market. The small gains handily outweighed a few scatteredpenny drops in the West for an overall showing of flat to a smidgenhigher.