Markets

December natural gas is set to open unchanged Monday morning at $2.96 as weather forecasts hint at cooling to come, but show no immediately pervasive trends beyond the current warm-dominated patterns. Overnight oil markets inched higher.

Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said the kingdom is ready to support extending an agreement to reduce oil production led by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which spiraled out of kilter in part because of huge output from North America’s onshore.

Global oil and gas dealmaking has remained fairly resilient even when pressured by commodity pricing, and transactions now may extend beyond the Permian Basin’s core, as well as into the Niobrara formation and Bakken Shale, said Raymond James & Associates analysts.

Energy free trade with Canada enabled U.S. natural gas exporters to make sales worth C$51.4 billion ($41 billion) since the onset of high-volume unconventional production a decade ago, according to the federal government in Ottawa.

Physical natural gas for Tuesday delivery bounded higher in Monday’s trading, recovering somewhat from Friday’s 16-cent drubbing, but also reflecting cool, stormy conditions over the Northeast.

Canadian natural gas supplies will remain nearly flat for six years as aging conventional flowing wells run down and unconventional production picks up speed to replace the depleting old reserves, according to new projections by the National Energy Board (NEB).

November natural gas forward prices fell an average 6 cents between Oct. 20 and Oct. 26 as record production and elusive cold weather forecast for the coming weeks weighed heavily on a market anxious to get the winter heating season underway, according to NGI’s Forward Look.

Physical natural gas for weekend and Monday delivery was in abundant supply in Friday’s trading, and with sellers outnumbering buyers and a weak settlement of the November futures contract, prices tumbled.

Weekly natural gas trading started off with a bang as a perfect storm of soaring temperatures, loss of electrical transmission,, and constrained pipeline transportation converged on the Los Angeles Basin and set prices early in the week rocketing by $9 to upwards of $12.