Advance

Natural gas futures traders continued their recent stretch of back-and-forth trading as the May contract shrugged off Friday’s nickel advance and dropped nearly a dime on Monday. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $3.902 before closing out the regular session at $3.944, down 9.5 cents from Friday’s finish.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), formed by natural gas producers to advance energy development in Pennsylvania, last week launched plans to become an independent nonprofit.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition (MSC), formed by natural gas producers to advance energy development in Pennsylvania, this week launched plans to become an independent nonprofit.

With traders playing it close to the vest for the second consecutive session, November natural gas futures on Wednesday followed up Tuesday’s 4.5-cent advance with a 3.4-cent decline to $4.841.

July natural gas futures retreated Tuesday as traders saw the market adjusting to cash quotes and admitted that much of Monday’s 32.5-cent advance was stop-loss orders getting hit and not the result of any fundamental change in the market. July futures fell 5.3 cents to $4.129 and August dropped 7 cents to $4.312. July crude oil eased 15 cents to $70.47/bbl.

May natural gas futures were unable to sustain Friday’s 13-cent advance and stumbled badly as weaker crude oil and equity markets set a negative tone to the day’s trading. Analysts see no reconciliation between plump production and recession-diminished demand for another two quarters and suggest things could get really grim if next winter is mild.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is seeking comments on an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR) that would review whether to eliminate the bona fide hedge exemption for swap dealers, which applied only to certain agricultural commodities, and replace it with a conditional limited risk management exemption that could extend to energy and metal commodities.

A few Gulf Coast points joined the Florida citygate and most of the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic citygates in sustaining Tuesday’s overall price advance through Wednesday, but most of the market dropped in response to some warming trends either already under way or in the forecast, and to relaxation or elimination of some cold weather-related pipeline restrictions.

In a rare Sunday session the Senate voted to advance a $10-12 billion omnibus lands package that would close access to millions of acres of public lands for energy exploration and other activities.