Snapped

In the bush around the Norman Wells inlet to the most northerly oil conduit on the continent, six producers have snapped up 8,998 square kilometers (3,473 square miles) of drilling rights leases by pledging to spend C$534 million on exploration over the next nine years.

In the bush around the Norman Wells inlet to the most northerly oil conduit on the continent, six producers have snapped up 8,998 square kilometers (3,473 square miles) of drilling rights leases by pledging to spend C$534 million on exploration over the next nine years.

More than two years after a spectacularly expensive takeover called attention to Alberta’s vast Duvernay geological formation, drilling is beginning — and the deep shale target is turning out to be expensive to hit.

In last-minute talks, El Paso Corp. on Tuesday trumped an investment group’s bid and snapped up the Rockies-based exploration and production (E&P) unit of Flying J Inc. for $103.5 million.

Having recently snapped up Mid-American Pipeline and Seminole Pipeline from Williams, Enterprise Products Partners L.P. announced it was continuing to solidify its natural gas liquids empire with the purchase effective Nov. 1 of four NGL terminals and certain wholesale propane supply and sales contracts from an affiliate of Cornerstone Propane Partners, L.P.

Having recently snapped up Mid-American Pipeline and Seminole Pipeline from Williams, Enterprise Products Partners L.P. announced it was continuing to solidify its natural gas liquids empire with the purchase effective Nov. 1 of four NGL terminals and certain wholesale propane supply and sales contracts from an affiliate of Cornerstone Propane Partners, L.P.

Ending a two-day slide, natural gas futures snapped back to lifeFriday as traders were drawn back to the long side of the market bysupportive technicals and stronger weekend cash prices. In just itssecond day as the prompt contract, May advanced 7.2 cents to finishat $2.945, just a penny off its high for the day and just 6 centsof its all-time high notched last Tuesday.

Feeding off bullish weather forecasts, the natural gas futuresmarket snapped back yesterday as local and fund traders added totheir growing long positions. That enabled the November contract toerase Thursday’s 13.6-cent downward retracement and retest the$3.00 level in active, pre-weekend dealings. The prompt monthfinished strongly and closed at $2.975, a 14.1-cent advance on theday.

Following one of the quietest trading sessions in recent memoryThursday, the futures market snapped back to life Friday as tradersetched out a wide, 20-cent range in bumpy, pre-weekend dealings.After trading as low as $2.55 and as high as $2.76 the Novembercontract finished the week strongly, gaining 5 cents to $2.692.Estimated volume of 79,860 confirmed the heavy activity.