Stopping

Stopping to catch its breath following a busy summer on the acquisition and divestiture front, The Woodlands, TX-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said last week it is well on its way to restoring its balance sheet while putting in place permanent financing for its August acquisitions of Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources Inc. Following the announcement two weeks ago that it is selling its Canadian subsidiary, the company added that it is also eyeing further divestitures.

Stopping to catch its breath following a busy summer on the acquisition and divestiture front, The Woodlands, TX-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday it is well on its way to restoring its balance sheet while putting in place permanent financing for its August 2006 acquisitions of Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources Inc. Following the announcement last week that it is selling its Canadian subsidiary, the company added that it is also eyeing further divestitures.

Rock icon Meat Loaf might have sang, “You’ll never drill for oil on a city street,” but that’s not stopping Chesapeake Energy Corp. from attempting to tap natural gas below the Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW).

Stopping the rally from last week at least temporarily, August natural gas futures on its way towards expiration dropped 17.7 cents on Monday to close at $5.957. The drop almost erased last Thursday’s 22.1-cent rally, which was sparked by the first bullish natural gas storage report in many weeks (see Daily GPI, July 23).

Following a four-day, 45-cent price decline, bulls weresuccessful in stopping the bleeding yesterday as strong physicalprices gave way to an unexpected late short-covering rally. Cappingits tenure as prompt month in dramatic fashion, the Januarycontract expired yesterday at $2.344, up 7.3 cents on the day and ahalf-cent above where it debuted as spot month on Nov. 29.

For the third day in a row the April Futures contract tested butwas unable to break through the $2.185 resistance level, stoppingshort at $2.172 Wednesday. April opened higher in sympathy withHenry Hub cash market prices, which eked out a couple-cent gain onthe day, but it was limited to a 4-cent trading range with arelatively light 31,462 contracts changing hands.