Active

How appropriate! On the first official day of what is expected to be an especially active 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced formation of the year’s second named storm in the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Friday afternoon. The news came far too late to affect the spot market, where all points fell Friday except for a small gain at Westcoast Station 2. Several Rockies points led the general declines with dollar-plus plunges.

Contrary to perceptions, liquefied natural gas (LNG) proponents are still active in California, and on the eve of a deadline for the state’s governor weighing in on an offshore terminal proposal, activity continues to attempt what some critics consider politically impossible — siting an LNG terminal somewhere along the Southern California coast. The longest-running proposal to site a terminal in Long Beach harbor is still alive as are four separate offshore terminal proposals.

Extreme volatility in weather or an active hurricane season could alter their fundamentally bullish outlook, but Raymond James & Associates analysts said last week that tightening supply and demand fundamentals should yield a more bullish summer-ending storage scenario at around 3,100 Bcf, with higher sustainable prices through this year and into 2008.

Extreme volatility in weather or an active hurricane season could alter their fundamentally bullish outlook, but Raymond James & Associates analysts said Monday that tightening supply and demand fundamentals should yield a more bullish summer-ending storage scenario at around 3,100 Bcf, with higher sustainable prices through this year and into 2008.

April natural gas futures threw caution to the wind and jumped higher in active trading Thursday, building on Wednesday’s formidable rally. April futures Thursday rose 16 cents to $7.320, and the May contract added 17 cents to $7.435. May crude oil futures vaulted $2.08 to $61.69/bbl.

Looking to give people in the energy industry and beyond a way to protect themselves from the billions of dollars in damage incurred during the overly active 2005 hurricane season, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange last week rolled out its CME-Carvill Hurricane Index futures and options. The underlying indexes will be calculated by Carvill, an independent reinsurance intermediary in specialty reinsurance that tracks and calculates hurricane activity.

Looking to give people in the energy industry and beyond a way to protect themselves from the billions of dollars in damage incurred during the overly active 2005 hurricane season, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on Monday rolled out its CME-Carvill Hurricane Index futures and options. The underlying indexes will be calculated by Carvill, an independent reinsurance intermediary in specialty reinsurance that tracks and calculates hurricane activity.

April natural gas futures managed to score the largest gain since late January on Tuesday by jumping 21.8 cents to settle at $7.472 in active trading. The gain was the largest the April contract had made since Jan. 30 when it soared 68.3 cents to settle at $7.695.

High commodity prices and an active market for assets have prompted Houston-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. (PXP) to pursue the divestiture of nonstrategic oil and gas properties, mainly in California and Texas, the company said Wednesday. Separately, Midland, TX-based independent Saber Resources LLC hired Energy Spectrum Advisors Inc. (ESA) to divest all of its oil and gas interests in the Permian Basin, which are about 90% oil producing.