Rise

Natural gas and oil drilling in Ohio could create 65,000 jobs and add nearly $5 billion to state coffers by 2014, according to an academic study.

Robust output from the nation’s shale plays and relatively mild winter weather continue to force analysts to trim their natural gas price forecasts, with Bentek Energy LLC on Tuesday saying it expects the market to set a new price floor of $1.94/Mcf this September.

Strange creature, this spot gas market. Prices rise for two days when generally mild weather doesn’t appear to justify it; then when heating load-boosting cold either begins to show up or is in the next-day forecasts, the climb falters Wednesday and all trading locations but one drop. Only two of the declines were by less than double-digit amounts.

The number of permits for horizontal natural gas wells in Ohio’s portion of the Utica and Point Pleasant was on the rise in the closing months of 2011, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

With unconventional supplies on the rise, natural gas will be the go-to fuel for power generation over the coming decade, but the electric and natural gas industries need to cooperate better to avoid service interruptions, according to a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) report issued last month.

Continental Resources Inc. has successfully completed its second natural gas well in the Anadarko Woodford play, while the company’s production total continued to rise during 4Q2011.

With unconventional supplies on the rise, natural gas will be the go-to fuel for power generation over the coming decade, but the electric and natural gas industries need to cooperate better to avoid service interruptions, according to a North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) report issued Friday.

Prices continued to rise by mostly small amounts at a large majority of locations Thursday. There was no support from moderate weather in most regions, and the previous day’s prompt-month futures gain of 0.2 cent wasn’t much of a cash market booster. But the acceleration of Atlantic tropical activity — including Tropical Storm Nate possibly entering the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production area — undoubtedly weighed on traders’ minds.

Support from hot weather remained generally meager for the end of August, but the cash market relied on a prior-day rise of 7.9 cents by October futures and forecasts of a potential hurricane entering the Gulf of Mexico production area to rally by often-substantial amounts at all points Wednesday.