Trend

Keying off mixed futures market activity on Friday, the cash market on Monday continued its recent trend of “following the screen,” recording a mixture of gains and losses across the country. While the East and West recorded mostly gains, some as high as half-a-dollar, the rest of the country’s regions produced a wide range of ups and downs.

The cash market returned to its recently dominant trend of mixed price movement Friday, with most points being flat or rising or falling less than a dime. The numbers of gainers and losers were approximately equal as the approaching return of hotter weather in some areas was arrayed against prior-day screen weakness and the drop of industrial load that occurs over a weekend.

The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) signaled that the latest revision to its drilling forecast “continues, and deepens, the trend of reduced natural gas drilling.” The forecast reduction issued Thursday follows lower gas drilling numbers, primarily in Alberta and British Columbia, which began to fall dramatically last year.

The Canadian Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors (CAODC) signaled that the latest revision to its drilling forecast “continues, and deepens, the trend of reduced natural gas drilling.” The forecast reduction issued Thursday follows lower gas drilling numbers, primarily in Alberta and British Columbia, which began to fall dramatically last year.

Houston-based Leor Energy LP, which is partnering with EnCana Corp. on some exploration prospects in the Bossier Trend of Robertson County, TX, said Thursday that the gross natural gas production from its Amoruso Field has reached 200 MMcf/d “and can now be comfortably counted as one of the top five largest onshore discoveries in the United States in the past decade.”

Houston-based Leor Energy LP, which is partnering with EnCana Corp. on some exploration prospects in the Bossier Trend of Robertson County, TX, said Thursday the gross natural gas production from its Amoruso Field has reached 200 MMcf/d “and can now be comfortably counted as one of the top five largest onshore discoveries in the United States in the past decade.”

Spring officially began Tuesday evening, and despite a warming trend in the Midwest along with generally moderate weather already occupying the South, cash prices rose at a large majority of points that day. Several Rockies points spiked by dollar-plus amounts in rebounding from big plunges Monday, while most of the small losses were concentrated in Appalachia and at Northeast citygates.

As much as a quarter of the nation’s energy can come from renewable resources by 2025, if fossil fuel prices continue on their trend of the past few years, and it will not cost power consumers any more for the cleaner supplies, according to a Rand Corp. technical report released Monday by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Energy Future Coalition. Modeling 1,500 different simulations, the report concluded that what it called “a range of plausible futures” could produce “expanded use of renewables at acceptable costs.”

As much as a quarter of the nation’s energy can come from renewable resources by 2025, if fossil fuel prices continue on their trend of the past few years, and it will not cost power consumers any more for the cleaner supplies, according to a Rand Corp. technical report released Monday by the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Energy Future Coalition. Modeling 1,500 different simulations, the report concluded that what it called “a range of plausible futures” could produce “expanded use of renewables at acceptable costs.”