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The natural gas cash market on average slipped by a penny in Wednesday’s trading, with many points trading within just a few pennies of unchanged. Great Lakes locations were flat to a couple of pennies lower, and the Gulf mostly registered losses of 2-3 cents. California prices were squarely in the red. At the close of futures trading, July had added 5.3 cents to $3.777 and August was up by 5.4 cents to $3.797. July crude oil added a half buck to $95.88/bbl.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected to release within a few weeks a new and improved rule aimed at restricting excessive speculation in the swaps market, said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton last Wednesday.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is expected to release within a few weeks a new and improved rule to restrict excessive speculation in the swaps market, said CFTC Commissioner Bart Chilton Wednesday.

Tulsa-based midstream operator SemGroup on Wednesday agreed to a $300 million cash price for Chesapeake Energy Corp.’s interests in subsidiary Mid-America Midstream Gas Services LLC, that comes with a 20-year gathering and processing contract for 540,000 net acres in the Mississippian Lime play.

The torrent of natural gas production coming out of North America’s shale plays reminds Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist at ConocoPhillips Gas & Power, of the opening lines of “A Tale of Two Cities,” Charles Dickens’ epic novel of the French Revolution.

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said Tuesday that his office has opened an investigation of a crude oil spill near Mayflower, AR, which ExxonMobil was working to clean up. The cause of the spill is still under investigation, but Exxon said the spill did not involve tar sands oil.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has issued a permit to Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (TGP) for its Northeast Upgrade Project after determining that it is in the public interest and would not adversely affect the environment.

North American energy self-suffiency “is within reach,” but an energy strategy that capitalizes on U.S. advantages must be implemented, Business Roundtable (BRT), a group of CEOs of U.S. companies, said Monday.

Physical gas prices Friday were within a penny or two of unchanged at most points, and if you exclude Northeast price plunges, the overall market shed an average of a penny. However, if wide-ranging losses in the East and Northeast are factored in, the decline on the day expands to a dime.