August

With a worsening technical environment and weather forecasts becoming less supportive, the August natural gas futures contract continued its recent plunge on Tuesday, dropping to a low of $5.830 before closing the day’s regular session at $5.863, down 17.6 cents from Monday’s close. In the three sessions since last Thursday’s $6.706 settle, the prompt month has spiraled 84.3 cents.

An estimated 18 million acres offshore Texas will be up for lease in late August when the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) holds the first sale in its five year (2007-2012) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) leasing program.

After carving out a new low for the move on Tuesday, August natural gas futures traders on Wednesday ignited a rebound that left the contract at $6.528, up 22.1 cents from Tuesday’s regular session close.

Following Monday’s drop of nearly 30 cents, August natural gas futures traders continued to push the prompt month lower Tuesday as the contract recorded a low of $6.240 before closing out the day’s regular trading session at $6.307, down 6.9 cents from Monday.

After free-falling lower in Friday morning trade, August natural gas futures prices barely acknowledged that an industry-expected 78 Bcf was injected into natural gas storage for the week ended June 29. Instead, the market continued to plummet to a low of $6.360 before settling at $6.444, down 17.4 cents on the day and 32.9 cents lower than the prior week’s close.

With most traders starting their Independence Day holiday early, August natural gas futures trading on Tuesday was mostly muted. The prompt month traded within a slim 11.5-cent range before settling at $6.754, down a penny on the day. Whether this week’s slowdown of the recent price drop is due to anything other than pre-holiday trading remains to be seen.

Former Dynegy Inc. trader Michelle Valencia — who was convicted in August of seven counts of wire fraud for reporting false trade data to gas price index publishers (see NGI, Aug. 7) — was denied her request for acquittal or a new trial (see NGI, Aug. 21) in a Dec. 14 judge’s order.

Former Dynegy Inc. trader Michelle Valencia — who was convicted in August of seven counts of wire fraud for reporting false trade data to gas price index publishers (see Daily GPI, Aug. 7) — was denied her request for acquittal or a new trial in a Dec. 14 judge’s order.

Citing the recent “success” of the Dominion East Ohio rate auction in August, the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) said it has recommended that the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) implement a wholesale auction in spring 2007 to achieve lower natural gas rates for customers of Columbia Gas of Ohio. However, Columbia said it is nowhere near sold on the idea.