Year

U.S. importers bought more but paid less for Canadian natural gas last year, according to the 2016 annual trade record from the U.S. Department of Energy.

June natural gas is expected to open 3 cents higher Wednesday morning at $3.26 as traders focus on forecasts of higher 2017 prices more so than moderating weather outlooks. Overnight oil markets rose.

Royal Dutch Shell plc roundly beat earnings forecasts for the first quarter, posting a 300%-plus increase in profits from a year ago, while its decision to capture more of the global natural gas market paid handsome dividends.

Touting growth opportunities in the refining/marketing and midstream sectors, senior executives at Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) and its midstream master limited partnership, MPLX LP, on Thursday painted an optimistic outlook for the energy sector, led by the expectation that OPEC will continue to keep a tight lid on production.

Less than a year after filing voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Houston-based Ultra Petroleum Corp. last Wednesday set a $500 million capital expenditure budget for this year and said it expects to exit from Chapter 11 next month.

Despite the commodities downturn that dogged Appalachian producers for most of 2016, natural gas production in Pennsylvania set another record last year when it increased 11% from 2015 to 5.1 Tcf, according to recently released data from the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

Lower 48 exploration and production (E&P) companies, particularly those with Permian Basin exposure, are loosening their purse strings this year, while some of the largest operators are trimming investments as capital-intensive projects wind down, according to Wood Mackenzie.

U.S. natural gas merchants are catching up to the traditional Canadian champions of international trade in North American production, according to the latest trade scorecard compiled the United States Department of Energy (DOE).

Spectra Energy Partners LP’s Access Northeast project has been in a regulatory/contracting holding pattern since late last year, but the company said Friday that New England needs the natural gas the Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC expansion would deliver and it remains committed to the project.