Markets

Renewed buying interest after the previous week’s slide in natural gas prices, as well as supportive news on the weather front, sent natural gas forward prices up across the curve.

Whether you were a short-term natural gas trader Friday looking to buy or sell weekend and Monday physical packages, or you were a longer-term futures trader anticipating that $3 technical support would hold, the bears had a weather forecast just for you.

March natural gas is set to open 3 cents higher Thursday morning at $3.16 as traders see short-term bullish conditions in the form of near-term weather coupled with an expected government report showing usage above historical norms. Overnight oil markets rose.

The March natural gas futures contract lost a portion of its opening strength Thursday morning after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a storage withdrawal that was about in line with what traders were expecting.

Energy trade between the United States and Mexico continues to grow while the value of U.S. exports has surpassed the value of what it imports from Mexico, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Meanwhile, exports of U.S. natural gas to Mexico so far this year have exceeded 4.2 Bcf/d, the agency said Thursday.

While the 2016-2017 winter to date has been largely the winter that wasn’t for much of the country, cold weather is expected to grab hold of the northern tier of the United States well into spring, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

Law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP has opened a Houston office with a team of lawyers with energy transactional experience, including public and private mergers and acquisitions, asset acquisitions and divestitures, and joint ventures; debt and equity capital markets; finance and restructuring; tax (focused on master limited partnerships); and regulatory matters, the firm said. The team will initially consist of eight partners, who are to be announced in the coming weeks. “Our new Houston office will be initially focused on energy transactions, but we expect the office to work closely with the Dallas office and other lawyers throughout our firm to attract restructuring, litigation, appellate and regulatory opportunities,” said Rob Walters, partner in charge of the firm’s Dallas office.

For the most part, traders of physical gas for Friday delivery elected to get deals done before the release of the often volatility-inducing Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report.

Physical natural gas traded for Thursday delivery was a split ticket Wednesday, as sharp weather-driven increases at eastern points were able to easily offset softer Midcontinent, Rockies and California prices.