Weekend

The expiring April natural gas futures contract is set to open 3 cents lower Friday morning at $2.64 as traders see continued market weakness yet have to deal with erratic weekend weather conditions. Overnight oil markets fell.

Physical natural gas prices overall averaged a little over a penny higher on Friday for weekend and Monday gas deliveries. Midcontinent prices fluctuated from flat to a penny or two higher, and deliveries to Rocky Mountain points were able to climb about a penny higher.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) was to start up service over the weekend on the first pipeline loop of its major Northeast Supply Link expansion, one of the key links in sending new gas out of the Marcellus Shale.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line (Transco) was to start up service over the weekend on the first pipeline loop of its major Northeast Supply Link expansion, one of the key links in sending new gas out of the Marcellus Shale.

Colorado state authorities agreed over the weekend that going forward the mitigation of a natural gas liquids (NGL) spill near Parachute Creek will be led by the state Department of Public Health and Environment (DPHE). The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (OGCC) will no longer be the lead agency.

Officials from North Dakota’s Health and Mineral Resources Departments were busy over the weekend as part of the clean up following a fatal oil well blowout that occurred last Tuesday night, spewing about 400 barrels of crude over surrounding agricultural fields. A health department environmental scientist was assessing the risks of contamination to crops and local water supplies, and the Department of Mineral and Resources coordinated the cordoning off and management of the site itself. New Mexico-based Black Hawk Energy Services was in the process of putting production pumping equipment into place at the partially completed well. One worker was killed when he was run over by a truck being relocated away from the well site. The Williams County Sheriff’s Office told local news media in Williston that the incident is still under investigation. Two parts of the well’s pre-production work had been done, but it was not ready to begin commercial production, state officials told local news media.

The emergence of Tropical Storm Debby in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) over the weekend, the unusually early start of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season and an increase in North Atlantic water temperatures have prompted Weather Services International (WSI) to increase the number of tropical storms in its forecast for this year.

With six weeks of discouraging news trailing behind it, Chesapeake Energy Corp. managed to get away for the three-day Memorial Day weekend with things looking a tad brighter — in some corners, perhaps. The stock price got a gentle nudge on the news that activist shareholder Carl Icahn is now one of the biggest shareholders, and some analysts now think that the stock price may have hit a bottom.

Unless an accord was reached over the weekend, the initial multi-district litigation (MDL) trial centering on the Macondo well explosion in April 2010 is scheduled to begin Monday in New Orleans. Sources said late last week the defendants were attempting to come to terms with lawyers representing thousands of plaintiffs.