Allowed

Ample supplies of natural gas and the lack of any real demand allowed cash market points across the United States to sink on Tuesday as traders were unimpressed by the possibility of seeing the first tropical storm enter the Atlantic. While most points declined by less than a dime, some of the largest drops were seen in the Northeast, the Rockies and the West.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day in place through Saturday, then allowed it to expire Sunday.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) last week asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that has allowed Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to avoid paying royalties allegedly owed over a four-year period on eight oil and natural gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

The Northeast remains unusually mild for mid-July, but warming trends in the Midwest and Rockies/Pacific Northwest allowed prices to find enough cooling load in other areas to rise at all points Tuesday. In doing so, the cash market defied a further drop of 11 cents by August futures a day earlier. The Rockies had most of the top increases as a substantial number of locations recorded double-digit advances.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that has allowed Anadarko Petroleum Corp. to avoid paying royalties allegedly owed over a four-year period on eight oil and natural gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM).

Southern California Gas kept a high-linepack OFO that had been initiated Saturday in effect through Monday, then allowed it to expire Tuesday. However, on Tuesday afternoon the LDC said it was declaring a new high-linepack OFO for Wednesday, setting the imbalance tolerance for positive daily imbalances at 10%.

Southern California Gas declared a high-linepack OFO for Sunday but allowed it to expire Monday.

After tightening the negative imbalance tolerance Tuesday from 25% to 10% in the 11th day of an Overage Alert, Florida Gas Transmission allowed the Overage Alert to expire Wednesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Thursday protested the Obama administration’s decision to “unilaterally overturn” a Bush-era regulation that allowed federal agencies to forgo “broad interagency consultations” with the Interior Department’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) and the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) before taking any action that may affect threatened or endangered species.