Backing

Natural gas bulls kept the pressure on futures prices on Friday as the July contract once again reached $8 before backing off in a late round of profit taking to settle at $7.918, up 11 cents from Thursday’s close and 25.5 cents higher than the previous week’s $7.663 finish.

Fortifying the activities of one of the top natural gas marketing firms in North America with solid financial backing, American International Group Inc. subsidiary AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIG-FP) said Thursday that it has signed an agreement to purchase a 50% partnership interest in Tenaska Energy’s natural gas marketing companies — Tenaska Marketing Ventures, Tenaska Marketing Canada and Tenaska Gas Storage — known collectively as TMV. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Backing up the reputation that Colorado is an environmentally conscious state, Gov. Bill Ritter last week signed into law House Bill 1281 and Senate Bill 100 — two centerpieces of Colorado’s New Energy Economy legislative agenda — at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Wind Technology Center south of Boulder.

Backing up the reputation that Colorado is an environmentally conscious state, Gov. Bill Ritter this week signed into law House Bill 1281 and Senate Bill 100 — two centerpieces of Colorado’s New Energy Economy legislative agenda — at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Wind Technology Center south of Boulder.

Fortifying the activities of one of the top natural gas marketing firms in North America with solid financial backing, American International Group Inc. subsidiary AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIG-FP) said late last week that it has signed an agreement to purchase a 50% partnership interest in Tenaska Energy’s natural gas marketing companies — Tenaska Marketing Ventures, Tenaska Marketing Canada and Tenaska Gas Storage — known collectively as TMV. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Backing up its preliminary winter 2006-2007 forecasts from October (see NGI, Oct. 16; Oct. 23), meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday reiterated once again that this season is likely to be warmer than the 30-year norm (1971-2000) across much of the nation, yet cooler than last year’s very warm winter season. If the forecast holds up, natural gas and power prices during this heating season could soften.

Backing up its preliminary winter 2006-2007 forecasts from October (see Daily GPI, Oct. 11; Oct. 23), meteorologists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) on Thursday reiterated once again that this season is likely to be warmer than the 30-year norm (1971-2000) across much of the nation, yet cooler than last year’s very warm winter season. If the forecast holds up, natural gas and power prices during this heating season could soften.

Backing up the government’s winter forecast released last week, Rockville, MD-based EarthSat Energy Weather said Monday that it expects this winter to be colder than last year’s season, but still warmer than normal.

The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and several utilities are backing a FERC proposal to utilize the so-called “public interest” standard as the default standard of review for energy contract modifications, but the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) opposes FERC’s proposed rule, saying it “contravenes existing statutory law” [RM05-35].