Appeared

The price rally that had begun Monday didn’t reverse entirely but appeared to be losing some steam Wednesday. More than a few points were able to extend previous gains by small amounts, but even more were faltering due to declining heating load in some areas and the previous day’s downturn of 6.3 cents by April futures.

Cash traders appeared to have no concern about Tropical Storm Richard possibly surviving an overland passage and emerging into the southern Gulf of Mexico this week. What mattered more to them was a persistent lack of substantive weather-based demand (either heating or cooling); storage inventories poised to hit another all-time high level; and the previous day’s screen plunge. The physical market recorded large double-digit declines across the board Friday.

Growth in natural gas infrastructure services appeared to be the impetus behind General Electric Co.’s (GE) announcement Wednesday that it would pay $3 billion to buy Dresser Inc.

Growth in natural gas infrastructure services appeared to be the impetus behind General Electric Co.’s (GE) announcement last week that it would pay $3 billion to buy Dresser Inc.

The market appeared to be bowing a bit lower than before Friday in acknowledgment of the mostly moderate weather fundamentals that it had largely been defying in the previous two weeks. Even a 6.7-cent gain a day earlier by October futures in the face of an obviously bearish storage injection report failed to prevent a modest majority of points from seeing small declines for the weekend.

September natural gas futures fell quickly in what appeared to be aggressive technical selling Monday. The selling was nearly instantaneous and looked like it was triggered by a breach of last week’s lows. At the close of the day September fell 10.0 cents to $4.228 and the October contract retreated 10.1 cents to $4.249. September crude oil fell 15 cents to $75.24/bbl.

Two big tie-ups between oilfield service operators announced last week, which together are worth close to $1.8 billion, appeared to demonstrate the continuing appeal of being able to offer onshore hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracing) services to producers.

Intense heat in many areas finally appeared to be reviving the spot market, but only to a small degree, Thursday. The previous day’s minor rebound of 2.9 cents by September futures also helped in raising cash prices slightly at most points.

Raymond James & Associates Inc. last week appeared to take a step on the natural gas bull side as analysts slightly lifted their 2010 forecast for U.S. natural gas prices to $4.50/Mcf from $4.25.