Appear

A rebound in U.S. natural gas prices and drilling activity may be three or more years away, and energy analysts appear doubtful of a recovery this year.

Energy guru Tom Petrie agrees with many of his peers that 2009 doesn’t appear to hold much promise for the U.S. natural gas sector. Gas prices could fall to half of where they are now if certain events coincide this summer, but he still thinks there’s a bit of blue amid the darkening clouds.

Energy guru Tom Petrie agrees with many of his peers that 2009 doesn’t appear to hold much promise for the U.S. natural gas sector. Gas prices, he said, could fall to the $2 area if certain events coincide this summer, but he still thinks there’s a bit of blue amid the darkening clouds.

Front-month natural gas futures continued to hover around its five-and-a-half-dollar purgatory on Wednesday as the bears appear to be running out of road while the bulls lack the fuel for a sustained push higher. January natural gas on the day appeared to make a run at the upside with a $5.850 high and the downside with a $5.486 low before closing at $5.619, down 13.2 cents from Tuesday.

While things still appear aligned for Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings to scoop up embattled Constellation Energy for $4.7 billion, or $26.50/share (see Daily GPI, Sept. 19), reports in a number of newspapers indicate that there could be a dark horse that might swoop in over the weekend with a competing offer, one that is rumored to be more than a billion dollars sweeter to Constellation.

Any concerns that recent changes to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage reporting sampling process might affect energy markets appear unfounded as the government agency reported that the old and new samples were not much different, but that the new sampling procedure produced more accurate estimates.

Any concerns that recent changes to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage reporting sampling process might affect energy markets appear unfounded as the government agency reported that the old and new samples were not much different, but that the new sampling procedure produced more accurate estimates.

Natural gas prices of $10/MMBtu or higher in the last half of 2008 appear justified, given the colder-than-normal weather last winter, a hotter-than-normal early summer and significantly weaker imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Canadian gas, an energy analyst said last week.

Natural gas prices of $10/MMBtu or higher in the last half of 2008 appear justified, given the colder-than-normal weather last winter, a hotter-than-normal early summer and significantly weaker imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Canadian gas, an energy analyst said Monday.