Superfluous

EOG’s Papa Says Barnett Bigger Than Expected

The adjectives used to describe the Barnett Shale play — “prolific,” “gas-rich,” “abundant” — may have, at times, seemed superfluous. But the simple language EOG Resources Inc. CEO Mark Papa used last week to describe his take on the Texas play may be the most descriptive: “bigger than we expected.”

December 4, 2006

Futures Snap Back in Late-Day Rebound

“You can’t win the game if you give the ball away” was aseemingly logical but somewhat superfluous observation made byHoward Cosell on Monday Night Football back in the 1980s. If Cosellwere to have commented on the natural gas futures market yesterday,he probably would have said something like, “The market couldn’tmove lower because there was no additional selling.” And althoughthat comment would also have been redundant, it aptly describes thenature of yesterday’s price action at the New York MercantileExchange, where once early selling dried up, the market was free tobubble higher in near-frictionless trade. The May contract finishedup 3.2 cents to $2.128.

April 13, 1999