Sizeable

Generally, conditions are not as cold as they will get later in the week, but prices found enough demand for heating purposes to record gains at a sizeable majority of points Monday. The restoration of industrial load following its usual weekend dip was an additional, albeit minor, price booster. Mixed price moves were dominated by flat to about 30 cents higher numbers, with all of the double-digit gains confined to the Rockies and Northeast.

Although small losses were slightly dominant, a sizeable number of flat to modestly higher locations kept cash market movement mixed Monday. Most severely hot weather with triple-digit highs was still confined to the south-central and Southwest sections of the U.S., and although the South could expect to keep peaking in the low to mid 90s, that represented merely seasonal to slightly below-normal conditions for August.

Following the previous Friday’s sizeable drops, the market was definitely stronger Monday but remained a bit soft for the most part. Although warmer temperatures are forecast for Tuesday in some sections of the Midwest, stormy weather is expected to cool most of the region by midweek, and although it will remain generally hot, some parts of the South can also expect a slight dip in mercury levels.

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.

Houston-based Marathon, which is the fourth largest integrated producer in the United States, began leasing acreage in the DJ Basin in 2010. It currently is acquiring 2-D and 3-D seismic data and expects to participate in eight to 12 gross exploration wells by the end of the year.

Except for a sizeable number of flat to moderately higher locations in the West — where a cooling trend is taking overnight lows in the Rockies and Upper Plains back to either side of freezing — and elsewhere, Tuesday’s overall firmness didn’t last. Most of the cash market fell Wednesday due to a combination of a dearth of eastern weather-based load — in the form of either heat or substantive cold — and three successive previous days of futures weakness.

Supporters of natural gas vehicles (NGV) aren’t going after the personal vehicle market, at least not initially, but they see a sizeable market share in just replacing diesel fuel in fleet vehicles and the over-the-road diesel market.

Supporters of natural gas vehicles (NGV) aren’t going after the personal vehicle market, at least not initially, but they see a sizeable market share in just replacing diesel fuel in fleet vehicles and the over-the-road diesel market.

Supporters of natural gas vehicles (NGV) aren’t going after the personal vehicle market, at least not initially, but they see a sizeable market share in just replacing diesel fuel in fleet vehicles and the over-the-road diesel market.