Afternoon

El Paso lifted Friday an Overpull Penalty Alert notice that had been posted Tuesday afternoon. However, it cautioned that with a San Juan Crossover project involving installation of pigging facilities on Lines 1300 and 1301 scheduled for Dec. 1-2, 300 MMcf/d of system supply would be unavailable over the weekend and the alert would be reinstated if necessary. El Paso said concerns about cold weather, low linepack and other operational issues had caused rumors that the Crossover work might be canceled, although no such statement had been issued by the pipeline. Because El Paso and upstream producers had invested substantial efforts and resources in preparing for the maintenance, “rescheduling would be very difficult. The operational concerns have lessened considerably, and although the overall system is not in ideal condition for a shutdown of this scale, the shutdown will occur as scheduled.”

An Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation declared Tuesday afternoon by El Paso remained in effect Wednesday until further notice.

Buoyed by a bullish winter weather outlook released Thursday afternoon, natural gas futures erupted to the upside Friday morning as traders covered shorts and pressured the November contract to a new one-month high. Although sagging slightly at the close, the November contract had nonetheless paved its way into some very price-constructive territory, filling gaps and taking out buy-stop-loss orders en route to a 19.5-cent gain at $2.681.

Following a successful restart of its Internet-only, Access trading session late Friday afternoon, the New York Mercantile Exchange resumed open-outcry trading Monday morning at 11 a.m. (EDT) in an abbreviated, three-hour session. And just as it has been each day since the beginning of the year, sellers had the upper hand in the natural gas pit, as they pressured the October contract to within striking distance of recent lows. The prompt month finished at $2.369, 18.3 cents beneath Friday’s $2.552 close.

After shuffling to new 16-month lows for the second session in a row Thursday, natural gas futures steadied in the afternoon as several large commercial accounts supported the market with their buying presence. The September contract finished at $2.811, down 3.7 cents for the session but almost a nickel higher than its $3.765 low.

Saying linepack had stabilized, El Paso canceled an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty alert late Wednesday afternoon. The OFO had been initiated Monday.

Unable to live up to revised storage expectations, the natural gas futures market plummeted lower Wednesday afternoon as traders continued to liquidate new longs. For the third time in three days the September contract tested, but failed to break through resistance in the $3.35-40 area, paving the way for intra- and inter-day profit-taking. The September contract bore the brunt of the selling pressure, spiraling 21.5 cents lower to close at $3.081.

Saying linepack had stabilized, El Paso canceled an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty alert late Tuesday afternoon.

Natural gas futures spiraled lower into the close Wednesday afternoon, following the announcement that a whopping 102 Bcf was added to underground storage facilities last week. At the close, the prompt June contract was 15.8 cents lower at $4.483, more than 22% percent down from the $5.78 notched a little over a month ago.