Tick

Hopeful that it is seeing the final months of a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) tick away in New York, Norse Energy Corp. ASA — a company that, like many others, has suffered through years of uncertainty at the hands of the delay — is positioning itself to hit the ground running in the Marcellus and Utica shales.

As the final days for public comment over proposed rules governing high-volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) tick away, legislators in the New York State Assembly have introduced a flurry of bills on the practice, including one to extend a moratorium on it until June 1, 2013.

Breaking a five-session series of lower-lows and lower-highs, the natural gas futures market turned tentatively higher Wednesday as continued and steady end-user buying was enough to meet fund and commercial selling. Modest gains were seen throughout the six-year strip at Nymex and the September contract eked out a 0.9-cent advance to close Wednesday at $5.382.

Stemming a two-day, 22-cent price erosion, natural gas futures turned modestly higher in an abbreviated pre-holiday weekend session Friday, as profit taking gave way to a steady stream of end-user buying. The March contract looked poised to hit the $2.12 low notched last Monday, but after sellers ran out of gas early Friday the way was paved for a positive close. At 1 p.m. Friday the March contract settled 2 cents higher for the day and 1.5 cents higher for the week at $2.206.

While the clocks tick and the calendar pages keep turning,California keeps churning out court and regulatory cases fasterthan legislative solutions for its nagging energy woes.

Fresh off Wednesday’s advance the futures market looked poisedto continue higher Thursday as early buying prompted the market upat the open. However, a 25-cent gain in two days was more than eventhe greediest of bulls could handle, and the market reacted bytrending down. That left the November contract with a 1.9 cent lossto settle at $2.414 at the final bell.