Weighed

Baker Hughes Inc., the industry’s third-largest oilfield services provider, said Friday the slump in U.S. natural gas activity weighed heavily on its latest quarterly profits. However, the No. 1 oilfield services provider, Schlumberger Ltd., managed to avoid the carnage in North America’s onshore by accelerating activity overseas.

Three days after reporting an upbeat financial and operating performance in the second quarter, Chesapeake Energy Corp. said in a regulatory filing on Thursday it was subpoenaed in late June by the Department of Justice’s Midwest Field Office antitrust division.

Lower natural gas liquids (NGL) prices weighed down 2Q2012 earnings for both DCP Midstream Partners LP (DPM) and Energy Transfer Equity LP (ETE), the companies’ executives said in separate conference calls with analysts Wednesday.

Range Resources Corp.’s natural gas net output in the third quarter reached 537.2 MMcf/d, which was 7% more than in the year-ago period, the Fort Worth, TX-based independent said Tuesday.

As President Obama was preparing to deliver a major jobs speech to the nation Thursday night, the energy industry weighed in with a study showing more than 1.4 million new jobs, $800 billion in additional Treasury revenue, and 10 million bbls of additional daily oil and natural gas production by 2030 could be added with more flexible federal rules.

Continuing economic sluggishness weighed down TransCanada Corp.’s power revenues, resulting in net income of C$345 million (C50 cents/share) for 3Q2009, an 11.6% decline compared with C$390 million (C67 cents/share) in 3Q2008, the Calgary-based company said Wednesday.

EnCana Corp. last week reported second quarter results that were weighed down by weak natural gas prices but buoyed by commodity price hedges.

EnCana Corp. Thursday reported second quarter results that were weighed down by weak natural gas prices but buoyed by commodity price hedges.

The increasing lack of weather-based demand weighed even more heavily on the cash market Friday, with prices falling at a large majority of points. And unlike the single-digit changes that had prevailed through Thursday last week, most of Friday’s losses exceeded a dime. The previous day’s futures drop of 12.3 cents was an additional negative influence on cash quotes.