Absence

The absence of funding in the Bush administration’s fiscal year 2008 budget for the office of a federal coordinator for the long-stalled Alaska natural gas pipeline project was not an oversight, but rather was intentional, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told a Senate energy panel Wednesday.

Near-record natural gas storage levels and the absence of any major hurricanes so far this year have set the stage for lower prices as consumers head into the winter heating season, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Winter Fuels Outlook last Tuesday. As a result, consumers are expected to see lower gas bills for the first time in five winter heating seasons.

Record natural gas storage levels and the absence of any major hurricanes so far this year have set the stage for lower prices as consumers head into the winter heating season, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Tuesday.

Prices were up across the board Thursday in what traders agreed was a purely Nymex-driven cash market. In the absence of any substantive fundamental demand, physical numbers derived virtually all of their support from Wednesday’s 41-cent screen spike, they said.

An absence of severe weather threats, lower industrial load over a weekend, and the screen’s previous-day quarter decline set the stage for further mostly moderate softening in a sedate Friday market. A small uptick in Tennessee Zone 6 ran contrary to losses at all other points ranging from less than a nickel to nearly 30 cents.

After a relatively long absence of them, an Overage Alert Day notice (with 10% tolerance for negative daily imbalances) was in effect again Monday for Florida Gas Transmission’s market area. However, this OAD was short-lived, being discontinued Tuesday.

After a relatively long absence of them, an Overage Alert Day notice was in effect again Monday for Florida Gas Transmission’s market area. The notice carried a 10% tolerance for negative daily imbalances. FGT said forecasts indicated that cold weather would continue in Florida and that its capacity was being heavily utilized.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission demonstrated “a shocking absence of regulatory vigilance,” and failed to restructure itself to oversee a competitive market, according to a memorandum produced by Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman’s (CT) Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. The report attempts to place at least part of the blame for the Enron debacle at FERC’s door.

With the absence of warm weather and a lack of strong industrial demand in the near term, Canadian gas prices could weaken even more in the coming months, according to an energy industry update by Friedman Billings Ramsey (FBR). And while the rig counts have recovered somewhat, natural gas deliverability “remains a long-term concern.”