Regions

With more spring-like conditions having replaced the prevalent bitter cold of the past two weeks in many market regions, a majority of points recorded losses ranging from 2-3 cents to about a dime, with only a couple of them being more than single digits. The Northeast, which is getting what is expected to be short-lived return of wintry weather, was home to most of the locations that were flat to about 95 cents higher.

The Gulf of Mexico (GOM), despite the setbacks in the past year, is one of the world’s great producing regions, and an increasing proportion of activity and production will happen in ultra-deep waters, requiring “constant activity, new capital investment and the participation of a set of large and small companies,” PFC Energy said Friday.

Despite some of the year’s coldest weather being on the way in several regions — outstripping even the often-severe conditions through the middle of last week — a large majority of the cash market recorded moderate losses Friday. The previous day’s prompt-month futures drop of 17.1 cents and the weekend decline of industrial load tended to offset the expected return of major heating demand.

An uncertain environment exists for North America’s oil and gas industry because of “sharp differences” in the economic strength between regions, development opportunities, a changing environmental landscape and the upcoming midterm elections, Ernst & Young LLP said in a report Friday.

An uncertain environment exists for North America’s oil and gas industry because of “sharp differences” in the economic strength between regions, development opportunities, a changing environmental landscape and the upcoming midterm elections, Ernst & Young LLP said in a report Friday.

Marcellus Shale gas already is displacing pipeline flows from the west, an energy analyst said Tuesday at the Argus Marcellus Shale Gas Summit 2010 in Houston.

Rising prices grew even more prominent in the market Wednesday as enough regions are starting to feel enough early-autumn chill to prompt noticeable heating load. It isn’t much yet, as overnight lows in the 40s and 50s remain the most common temperature depths, but abetted by a prior-day gain of 1.6 cents by November futures it was sufficient to drive most points higher by generally small amounts.

Cash numbers continued to defy seasonable to cool weather in many regions for the most part as flat to slightly higher prices remained the norm for a second day Wednesday. The previous day’s loss of 8.7 cents by October futures also had limited impact in dampening the market.

Economic recovery and hot weather in the Gulf Coast and Southeast regions could boost power demand enough to consume about half of the gas that Barclays Capital analysts had expected to go to coal-fired power generation displacement this year during storage injection season, the firm said last Wednesday.