Anemic

Natural gas producers won’t be the only ones feeling pain from the world’s bloated gas supply and anemic recession-driven demand outlook. North American coal producers are poised for a hit as the gas market rebalances on the back of fuel switching from coal to gas for power generation, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts wrote in a recent report.

Natural gas producers won’t be the only ones feeling pain from the world’s bloated gas supply and anemic recession-driven demand outlook. North American coal producers are poised for a hit as the gas market rebalances on the back of fuel switching from coal to gas for power generation, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts wrote in a recent report.

February natural gas futures continued testing lower price levels on Thursday, aided by an anemic 59 Bcf withdrawal in the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) storage report for the week ended Jan. 11. The prompt-month contract breached psychological support at $8 before closing out the day at $8.081, down 5.2 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

Starting the week with more of a whimper than a bang, April natural gas futures on Monday traded within an anemic 6-cent range between $6.820 and $6.880 before settling at $6.847, down 7.7 cents for the day. While activity in natural gas ring was muted, the front spread in crude futures continued to widen to eye-opening levels.

Having been eyewitnesses to a wave of debt rating downgrades, anemic wholesale power prices and the collapse of the once-mighty Enron over the past year, a majority of power industry executives recently surveyed don’t expect the sector to rebound until 2004 at the earliest.

The prospect for better-than-average natural gas prices in 2003 remains good because of lower production levels and the “continued anemic drilling activity,” according to a new “Oil & Gas Report Card” by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P). The positive fundamentals, said analysts, are reflected in a 2003 futures strip of about $4/MMBtu.

The prospect for better-than-average natural gas prices in 2003 remains good because of lower production levels and the “continued anemic drilling activity,” according to a new “Oil & Gas Report Card” by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P). The positive fundamentals, said analysts, are reflected in a 2003 futures strip of about $4/MMBtu.

It had seemed Wednesday that strong energy futures and an anemic storage build would keep cash prices rising at least until the weekend. But an abrupt screen about-face Thursday combined with moderating temperatures in key southern and northern market areas and sent prices lower, generally down between about a nickel and a little more than a dime.

Electronic trading may be the antidote to anemic trading of theNew York Mercantile Exchange’s Alberta and Permian Basin gasfutures contracts, Exchange President R. Patrick Thompson said lastweek.