Access

Taking a cue from Thursday’s Access trade sell-off, the futuresmarket continued lower Friday as traders fully discounted thecurrent trio of storms by aggressively exiting their longpositions. By 2:40 p.m., the September contract had fallen justshort of filling in the chart gap down to $2.805. However, $2.83was all that the sellers could muster and prices rallied in thelast 30 minutes of trading. The September contract settled at$2.912, down 3.6 cents for the day but up more than 8 cents fromits earlier low.

Fueled by the season’s first hurricane hype and gains tacked onduring the Wednesday evening Access trading session, natural gasfutures gapped higher for the second day in a row yesterday asshort-covering and fresh buying created a tempest of bullishtrading activity. That buying pressure continued throughout much ofthe session, allowing the September contract to notch a new high of$2.905 before finishing at $2.898, up 10.6 cents from Wednesday’sclose.

UtiliCorp United energy marketing subsidiary Aquila Energylaunched The Exchange Center, a new business to offer customersaccess to gas storage and transportation without the need fortraditional service contracts. “We are in a unique position tooffer services that provide utilities, end users and marketingcompanies the ability to meet their commercial and operationalobjectives in a more cost-effective, market-responsive manner,”said Robert Poehling, Exchange Center senior vice president.

An IBM Internet outage that affected many western and Canadiancustomers last week temporarily cut off access to Altrade’selectronic gas trading system Thursday afternoon costing thecompany and its customers at least 5 Bcf/d in trading volume duringa peak bidweek trading period.

An IBM Internet outage that affected many western and Canadiancustomers last week temporarily cut off access to Altrade’selectronic gas trading system Thursday afternoon costing thecompany and its customers at least 5 Bcf/d in trading volume duringa peak bidweek trading period.

After a brief uptick during the Wednesday night Access tradingsession, natural gas futures continued lower yesterday at the NewYork Mercantile Exchange and settled below key support levels. Julyfinished at $2.285, after carving out a $2.27 low early Thursdaymorning. Estimated volume of 95,938 was almost double that ofMonday and Tuesday.

Light profit-taking that began in Monday’s Access tradingsession, continued yesterday at the New York Mercantile Exchange.Locals were seen as aggressive sellers, unloading positions aheadof today’s storage report. The July contract finished at $2.393,down 4.9 cents for the day.

Removal of a 4% import tariff on natural gas July 1, new openaccess transportation rates and the likelihood that Mexico willbegin privatization of its electric industry this year are makingthe country a more attractive business target for the U.S. energyindustry, and California-based Sempra Energy is taking immediateadvantage of the opening.

Fresh off a 5-cent rally in Wednesday night’s Access session thefutures market bulldozed higher yesterday amid light speculativebuying. July finished its first day as the prompt month up 7.2cents to $2.282, after notching a $2.30 high early Thursdayafternoon. Estimated volume was heavy, with 85,664 contractschanging hands.