Spurred

Spurred by — what else — record oil and natural gas prices, North American producers ConocoPhillips, EnCana Corp., Kerr-McGee Corp. and EOG Resources Inc. have millions of reasons to be pleased with 3Q results.

Expectations of growing power generation load spurred by hotter weather in much of the U.S. early this week extended a cash market rally Friday and got the August aftermarket off to a strong start. Gains for Sunday-Monday flows (prompted by the month-to-month transition occurring Sunday) mostly ranged from about a nickel to a little more than 20 cents, although a couple of flat points sneaked into the overall picture.

A strong market rally was kept going Tuesday by pretty much the same influences that had spurred gains the day before: hotter weather trends in several areas; a major nuclear outage in the West, where the heat was greatest in the region’s southerly climes; and a streak of rising natural gas futures prices, which was into its third day despite softer oil product numbers at Nymex.

The heat that spurred Tuesday’s price gains obviously was sufficient for only one day of bullishness. With some cooling trends approaching, and pressure from five straight preceding days of screen weakness, prices fell by double digits at all points Wednesday. Losses ranged from 15 cents to nearly 50 cents, and most points retreated further than they had advanced in Tuesday’s mini-rally.

Canada’s top natural gas transporter, spurred on by a continuing stream of evidence that new supplies will be needed, has set out to build a coalition big enough to have the political, as well as financial, strength to revive the dormant Alaska pipeline project

Canada’s top natural gas transporter, spurred on by a continuing stream of evidence that new supplies will be needed, has set out to build a coalition big enough to have the political, as well as financial, strength to revive the dormant Alaska pipeline project

Entering a period of milder weather and spurred by the previous day’s screen loss of nearly 22 cents, prices kept falling across the board Wednesday. However, the decline pace slowed considerably. Wednesday’s drops ranged as high as about 30 cents in the Northeast, but were in single digits at a slight majority of points.

Spurred by Friday’s screen drop of more than a quarter and generally milder weather trends, prices dropped across the board Monday. The Northeast, despite facing a new winter storm late Monday that would continue through Tuesday, again led the market’s downhill trek with declines of around a dollar or greater.

In yet another record year that was spurred by its upstream operations, ExxonMobil Corp. boosted its fourth quarter income 63% over a year ago, reporting $6.65 billion ($1.01/share), an increase of $2.56 billion year-over-year. Excluding still-lingering merger effects, discontinued operations and special items, ExxonMobil’s earnings were up $630 million from 4Q2002.