The Natural Gas Supply Association predicted slightly higher upward pressure on prices in the 2012-13 heating season as it released its 12th annual Winter Outlook. Henry Hub prices will average $2.75/MMbtu from November through March, slightly above the comparable period a year earlier, NGSA forecast.

Wood Mackenzie Ltd. anticipates a strong medium- to long-term resurgence of exploration and production activity for the deepwater Gulf of Mexico following the 2010 Macondo well blowout and resulting massive oil spill offshore Louisiana, which stalled gulf activities for a while.

Crude oil prices were pulled down Oct. 2 by weakness in the US gasoline market, but natural gas maintained its rally for the sixth consecutive session in the New York market on forecasts for colder weather.

Crude oil futures prices continued to make modest gains while the front-month natural gas contract maintained a five-session rally, escalating 5% Oct. 1 in the New York market on forecasts for cold weather in the central US in coming weeks.

October reformulated stock for oxygenate blending jumped 19.77¢ to finish at $3.34/gal—the highest level since early April—as traders scrambled to cover short positions prior to expiration of that contract at the close of the Sept. 28 session on the New York market.

Energy prices rebounded Sept. 27 in waffling markets. Some analysts believed the popup was from the number of bullish headlines hitting the tapes.

The US Environmental Protection agency should move quickly to resolve problems with Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN) used as biodiesel credits by yearend, an American Petroleum Institute official urged.

Iraqi oil production surpassed an estimated 3 million b/d in July—the highest level since the end of the Gulf War in 1990, according to a recent report from the US Energy Information Administration.

US energy consumption in 2011 totaled 97.3 quadrillion btu (quads), declining from 97.7 quads a year earlier, according to estimates in the US Energy Information Administration’s Annual Energy Review 2011.

Crude oil prices were down in mixed markets Sept. 26 as traders worried about future demand with International Monetary Fund officials insisting European Union creditors take tens of billions of euros in losses on their holdings of Greek government bonds.

Crude oil prices continued declining Sept. 25 in a mixed New York market after Charles Plosser, president of the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank, said the system’s latest stimulus program is “unlikely” to contribute much to US employment or economic growth.

Although there was no major event to jar the market, energy prices fell Sept. 24 with contracts giving back most of—or in some cases more than—their gains from the two previous sessions.

Energy prices continued to rise moderately Sept. 21, with no major events to push the market in any direction. Instead, markets appeared buoyed by the economic stimulus programs earlier announced by the US Federal Reserve System and Japan’s central bank.

Except for a 0.11% decline in the front-month US crude contract, other energy commodities ended Sept. 20 a 3-day selloff that slashed oil prices by 7%.