Amounts

Prices remained mixed in most of the market Thursday, with a majority of points either flat or moving only small amounts up or down. The much-cooled-down Northeast citygates were an exception in recording double-digit losses across the board.

Prices continued to rise at nearly all eastern points Tuesday, although by considerably smaller amounts than the soaring numbers seen the day before. However, a few touches of flatness were surfacing in the East, and a couple of Midcontinent pipes recorded drops of about a nickel.

Despite proposing an increase in May 2005 natural gas commodity prices, Xcel Energy said Friday that gas bill amounts will drop due to a decrease in use of the commodity. According to the company, projected bills would drop next month by 33% for typical residential customers and by 29% for typical small-business customers.

This week’s two-day price rally ran out of gas (pun intended) Wednesday as prices retreated across the board by amounts ranging from a little less than a dime to about a quarter. The previous day’s natural gas futures drop of 7 cents, coupled with a plunge of nearly a dollar and a half in the May crude oil contract that day, were cited as the chief factor in the softness since fundamental weather-related demand is seeing little change.

Prices were in retreat by mostly small amounts at nearly all points Wednesday despite heating load remaining fairly robust in several regions. One source felt that it was mainly a case of the market having wrung all the upside it could out of this week’s cold spells and having only minuscule next-day support from energy futures.

Freezing weather accompanied by copious amounts of snow had already settled in throughout much of the Northeast and Midwest and eastern parts of the South Monday and was due to continue Tuesday. The predictable result was sharply higher prices across the board in Monday’s launch of the March aftermarket.

About 30 major regulatory and environmental impediments to natural gas production have taken substantial amounts of supply off the market at a time of rapidly increasing gas demand, according to a new report titled “Environmental Policy and Regulatory Constraints to Natural Gas Production” by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

About 30 major regulatory and environmental impediments to natural gas production have taken substantial amounts of supply off the market at a time of rapidly increasing gas demand, according to a new report titled “Environmental Policy and Regulatory Constraints to Natural Gas Production” by the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory.

While most of the cash market was higher by double-digit amounts Friday due to colder weather returning to the Midwest and South, Northeast citygates reversed price direction again and plunged by several dollars each, despite already being in the midst of an intense cold spell that was expected to continue through Monday.