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On balance the cash market averaged out to the loss side of the trading ledger Monday, but double-digit strength was noted at northeastern points, and deliveries into southern California points also registered gains. Futures markets headed south as revised weather forecasts called for an extended period of warmth throughout the eastern two-thirds of the country. At the end of futures trading April had fallen 12.9 cents to $2.355 and May had slid 12.8 cents to $2.472. April crude oil added two cents to $106.72/bbl.

With its drilling rig count creeping up above 200, North Dakota ended 2011 on the high side of all-time production totals for oil and natural gas in December, according to the state’s Department of Mineral Resources. More than 95% of the production was from the Bakken and Three Forks formations.

Predictions of moderate temperatures in most areas — except for freezing lows in much of Canada, just on the other side of the border and occasionally in sections of the Rockies — along with the additional loss of industrial load associated with a holiday weekend and fulfilled anticipation of continued storage injections prompted sizeable cash market declines across the board Sunday.

Although influences such as weather forecasts and record-setting storage inventories were on the weak side, only a couple of points (OGT in the Midcontinent and NOVA Inventory Transfer in Western Canada) were lower Tuesday.

With heating load-generating conditions departing most areas outside the Rockies and either side of the Canadian-U.S. border, the market left a three-day string of mostly flat to higher numbers behind in recording drops at almost all locations Friday. The usual weekend decline of industrial load was another bearish influence, while the previous day’s rise of 6.6 cents by December futures provided little support for cash quotes.

Encana Corp., one of the biggest natural gas producers in North America, is taking a walk on the oily side in 2012, redirecting a substantial portion of its 2012 budget to more profitable liquids-rich plays, CEO Randy Eresman said on Thursday.

The federal government should leave shale regulation to the states, but companies should be ready for changes to the tax code that will likely impact their industry, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers told a Philadelphia audience last Wednesday.

Even with heating load staying generally on the light side and weaker prior-day futures, cash prices managed to achieve modest increases at nearly all points Tuesday. It was among other market vagaries in which price moves seemed to be at odds with demand realities.

Even with heat forecasts in most areas remaining on the seasonal to relatively mild side for the middle of one of the hottest months in the year, prices rose at nearly all locations Friday. Largely ignoring the usual weekend downturn of industrial demand, the cash market instead derived most of its strength from the previous day’s below-expectations storage injection report for the preceding week and the subsequent bullish reaction by futures traders.