Unfortunately

Marcellus Shale reserves may spark life into a shuttered, 110-year-old oil refinery complex south of Philadelphia that once supported nearly 500 jobs, according to IHS Inc. researchers.

A coalition of 69 environmental groups has urged President Obama to “employ any legal means” to halt hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and suggested a federal moratorium until further environmental studies of the practice are completed.

With a few instances of flat to modestly higher numbers sprinkled here and there, most of the cash market recorded small losses Friday in a muted reversal of the advances that had thoroughly dominated trading earlier last week. A large majority of the drops were in single digits. Northeast citygates, having much greater heights from which to fall, tended to see all of the larger declines ranging from a little more than a dime to as much as $1.30 or so.

Reversing the old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Ben Schlesinger of Benjamin Schlesinger and Associates said last week that unfortunately the energy market is broken and desperately needs to be fixed soon.

Reversing the old saying, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Ben Schlesinger of Benjamin Schlesinger and Associates said that unfortunately the energy market is broken and desperately needs to be fixed soon.

Futures succumbed to another major technical correctionyesterday as the July contract gapped 2.5 cents lower at the openand dropped a dime early on before plummeting after the AGA gasstorage report came out at 2 p.m. At the end of the regular tradingsession, July was down 34.9 cents, August had dropped 35.1 centsand September was off 33.1 cents. The July contract had a 39-centrange for the day, trading as high as $4.335 and as low as $3.930.