Reign

ExxonMobil Corp. continues to reign supreme as the world’s top energy enterprise and has regained its title as the largest domestic publicly traded entity.

ExxonMobil Corp., the No. 1 natural gas producer in the United States, continues to reign supreme as the world’s top energy enterprise, and it has regained its footing as the largest domestic publicly traded entity.

Near-flat numbers continued to reign in most of the market Wednesday, but softening tendencies were becoming more noticeable. The absence of Atlantic tropical activity combined with a substantial cooldown in much of the Midwest to produce another mixed market in which spikes continued at many Northeast citygates but were counteracted to some extent by growing losses in the Midcontinent/Midwest and at some Gulf Coast locations.

The November natural gas futures contract started its reign much like the October contract finished its own on Tuesday — quietly, but with a small uptick. The newly minted prompt-month contract traded between $3.903 and $3.980 before closing out the regular session Wednesday at $3.962, up 1.1 cents from Tuesday’s close.

Natural gas futures market weakness continued to reign on Monday as the prompt-month contract recorded a two-month low before closing out the regular session at $4.309, down 15.8 cents from Friday’s finish.

Make it eight quarters in a row for BP plc to reign as the top North American natural gas marketer. The London-based oil major once again surpassed competition in NGI’s 3Q2004 wholesale gas marketing survey, a lead that hasn’t changed since BP overtook Mirant, which held the top spot in 3Q2002.

Make it eight quarters in a row for BP plc to reign as the top North American natural gas marketer. The London-based oil major once again surpassed competition in NGI’s 3Q2004 wholesale gas marketing survey, a lead that hasn’t changed since BP overtook Mirant, which held the top spot in 3Q2002.

Moderate softening continued to reign in the cash market Wednesday as slow warming trends fail to prompt enough power generation load to turn prices around. A few Northeast citygates were essentially flat with losses of only a penny, while most other points recorded generally small drops ranging from 2-3 cents to a little more than a dime.

After initially moving higher on the news that a smaller-than-expected 34 Bcf was added to storage last week, the natural gas futures market tumbled lower Thursday on the realization that refills will continue for at least another week.