I suspect its a fluke and not the start of some new, "I want to sell gas into a low price environment" scheme.
Weather: Not as hot as last year but pretty normal for the season. This is the time of year when temps start to slowly but steadily fall into winter.
- Cooling Degree Days: 44 CDDs, down 13 from year ago levels
- Heating Degree Days: 15 gas-weighted HDDs, up from 11 last year ago.
Stuff We Care About Today:
(KOG) Announces Delays: The rig for their Bakken play was due onsite this month, now late October. They have 3 approved drilling permits ready for the day it shows up. This will be an interesting one, worth keep a quarter of an eye on as it sits way on the back burner.
PetroCanada Sees Rising Costs At Fort Hills. Kudos to VTZ for his fortune telling. (PCZ) on the tape this morning saying it is talking another hard look at its Fort Hills oil sands project have new estimates show costs could rise 50% over its original estimates. As VTZ has been pointing out, all of these projects are suffering from cost over runs and I would add that they are seen as a source of future oil growth (Non-OPEC supply) in the longer range forecasts that may just not happen if prices don’t turn soon. This one’s first phase would add 140,000 bopd by 2011 which really isn’t all that far off.
Odds & Ends
Analyst Watch: Nataxis starts (BEXP) with a Buy, (WNR) upped from Sell to Buy at Soleil, (ESLR) upped from Sell to Hold at Citi, Wedbush inititiated on (ESLR) with a Buy and $8 target. Keybanc is doing mark to market price target reductions on several E&P names we talk about here regularly: (WLL), (RRC), (NFX), (CRZO), (CRK), (COG), all come down 10 to 15% on PT but remain Buys since the targets are still much higher than market (NFX’s is now $65 for example).
