August

Despite her defeat in the August primary and plans to run as a write-in candidate, Senate Republicans Wednesday did not remove Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) as the ranking Republican of the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Prices continued to fall at nearly all points Thursday as subpar temperatures for late August persisted in most areas and a losing streak by the futures market continued to negatively influence cash numbers.

The Louisiana Mineral and Energy Board’s monthly lease sale in August collected more than $3.7 million in bonuses, bringing the fiscal year total to more than $8.3 million.

The Senate Democrat leadership’s decision Tuesday to postpone action on the oil spill bill until after the August recess was a “good one,” said the head of the American Petroleum Institute (API).

Senate Democrats are scrapping their plans to move forward with a broad-based energy bill before the start of the August recess, an industry spokesman said.

After trading in another fairly tight trading range of 15 cents on Tuesday, the August natural gas futures contract ended the regular session up 8 cents at $4.590 as traders monitored warmer-than-normal temperatures and some storm activity in the tropics.

Sticking to a fairly tight trading range for a second consecutive session, August natural gas futures on Tuesday traded between $4.334 and $4.487 before closing the day at $4.354, down 3.4 cents from Monday’s close.

Despite the pre-holiday weekend drop of 16.7 cents by August futures, prices recorded gains across the board Tuesday that were mostly in double digits. Although an early-week heat wave along the East Coast was due to start receding a bit Wednesday, temperatures would remain pretty warm, and one source suggested that end-users and utilities may have bought extra gas to make up for imbalances caused by highs that neared 100 Monday and Tuesday in such places as New York City.

Sticking to the recent script of back-and-forth moves in natural gas futures, the August contract followed up Thursday’s 23.8-cent increase with a drop of 16.7 cents to close Friday’s regular session at $4.687.