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North America’s natural gas market is further away from converging with the rest of the world than it was five years ago, an energy analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said last week.

North America’s natural gas market is further away from converging with the rest of the world than it was five years ago, an energy analyst with Raymond James & Associates Inc. said Monday.

The South was destined to bake under highs from around 90 to a little more than 100 stretching as far west as Arizona, but most of the rest of the U.S. and Canada could expect temperatures ranging from merely warm to chilly. Combined with the previous day’s July futures dip of 17.3 cents, the decline of cooling demand resulted in double-digit price losses across the board Friday.

In a general reversal from the previous day, Northeast citygates plummeted Thursday while nearly all of the rest of the market recorded sizeable upticks. Heat levels were due to stay high from the desert Southwest through the Midcontinent and South into the Mid-Atlantic. And it wasn’t much, but a 1.6-cent futures increase a day earlier provided a wee bit of support.

The total value of U.S. natural gas and oil and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first three months of this year was up 69% from the same period a year ago and the rest of 2011 promises to be strong, according to a survey by PwC US.

California, its utilities and the rest of the West Coast, went on alert Friday in response to the 8.9 Richter Scale quake that occurred offshore northeastern Japan, and the only significant impact was the closure for 2-1/2 hours of a natural gas-fired electric generation plant in the northern end of the state. Otherwise, California’s two major coastal nuclear generating plants and a host of gas and power facilities were unaffected.

While nearly all of the rest of the market was seeing losses that were mostly in double digits Wednesday, an arctic cold front was generating triple-digit spikes at many of the Northeast citygates. General softness elsewhere was based chiefly on areas either already sustaining cool to moderate conditions or moving back in that direction. The previous day’s downturn of 16.4 cents by April futures provided further negative guidance for the cash market.

Newfield Exploration Co. said it will spend about $1.7 billion this year on exploration and production activity, with two-thirds directed to oil plays and the rest focused on liquids-rich natural gas. The amount is equivalent to the company’s estimate of 2011 cash flow from operations.

Newfield Exploration Co. said it will spend about $1.7 billion this year on exploration and production activity, with two-thirds directed to oil plays and the rest focused on liquids-rich natural gas. The amount is equivalent to the company’s estimate of 2011 cash flow from operations.