Alex Steis

Continuing on the path established late last week, the March natural gas futures contract probed lower Monday, recording a low of $4.751 before closing the day’s regular session at $4.905, down 3.8 cents from Friday’s finish.

For the four-day trading week to end the month of January, physical natural gas prices were higher nearly across the board, except for in the Northeast, where prices were in steady retreat following record prices on polar vortex cold the previous week.

March natural gas futures on Friday continued to retreat from Wednesday’s short-covering run-up, leading market watchers to believe that the 52.4-cent jaunt well above $5 was more about the February contract’s termination than it was about current fundamentals.

Backing off Wednesday’s round of over-exuberant short-covering that saw both February and March futures soar by 52.4 cents, the newly minted front-month contract was in full retreat Thursday as the current polar vortex eased and forward-looking weather forecasts also moderated.

Noting that liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals are “significant facilities” with applications that require extensive reviews, Acting FERC Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said the Commission would try to act on project proposals “as quickly as we can.”

FERC Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur said Monday that the sharing of information between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will help in speeding up fraud and manipulation investigations, allowing quicker resolutions that will keep market participants better informed.

Addressing concerns surrounding this month’s natural gas and electricity price spikes brought on by record cold, FERC Acting Chairman Cheryl LaFleur told journalists Monday it is a sign that the markets are working.

In Wednesday’s article It’s Back; Polar Vortex II Prompts New Gas Price Records (see Daily GPI, Jan. 21), NGI reported that Genscape’s Southeast Mid-Atlantic Natural Gas Basis Commentary revealed that demand in the region had decreased 6.67 Bcf/d from last week’s average of 13.97 Bcf/d to 7.21 Bcf/d. However, Genscape had issued a correction stating that Southeast Mid-Atlantic demand actually had increased by 0.4 Bcf/d to 15.8 Bcf/d from last week’s average of 15.4 Bcf/d. NGI regrets the error.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday one of the “key parts” of its 2014 strategy is to “advance and protect America’s energy revolution” through the production of more domestic energy, the improvement of infrastructure and the modernization of the government’s regulatory process.