Barely

Most of the cash market varied little from flat Friday, but modest softness in the West tended to be barely more plentiful than small gains at eastern points. Moderately warmer temperatures were returning in the South, Northeast and Midwest, and cooling trends in the Rockies and desert Southwest were resulting in little cooling load remaining at western trading points.

Flat to barely higher numbers continued to dominate the cash market Wednesday as sub-freezing lows accompanied by snow in some cases were in the next-day forecasts for the Midwest, Northeast, the eastern half of the South, the Rockies and most of Canada. Gains ranged as high as a little more than a dime in Transco’s Zone 6-New York pool but were in single digits in nearly all instances.

Flat to barely higher numbers continued to dominate the cash market Wednesday as sub-freezing lows accompanied by snow in some cases were in the next-day forecasts for the Midwest, Northeast, the eastern half of the South, the Rockies and most of Canada. Gains ranged as high as a little more than a dime in Transco’s Zone 6-New York pool but were in single digits in nearly all instances.

With the ink barely dry on FERC’s settlement of the manipulation charges against Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), the Dallas-based energy company Tuesday expressed strong dissatisfaction with the way the agency’s enforcement staff handled the case.

Natural gas futures had a good shot at posting another solid gain Friday but by the close of floor trading were barely able to squeak into the plus column. August futures rose by 0.1 cent to $3.669 after trading nearly 12 cents higher and September eked out a 0.3-cent gain to $3.816. All contracts past February 2010 settled lower. August crude oil posted a solid gain of $1.54 to $63.56/bbl.

After September natural gas futures gained barely more than a dime on Monday, bullish traders were unable to produce any follow-through momentum on Tuesday as the front-month contract reached a high of $8.479 before ultimately closing out the day’s regular session at $8.330, down 1.9 cents from Monday’s finish.

Mixed price movement returned to the market Monday — barely — following Friday’s all-points losses. But only a few locations managed to be flat to as much as about 19 cents higher as softness continued to dominate cash quotes. The 32.3-cent decline by September futures Friday, coupled with an overall dearth of major cooling load outside the interior West, kept prices falling at a large majority of points.

The Mitsubishi Corp.-backed project to develop a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Long Beach Harbor along the Southern California coast is barely breathing, but still has not been officially declared dead, according to the CEO of Mitsubishi’s Sound Energy Solutions (SES), the proponents of the five-year-old project. The Japanese-based parent company will decide by June 6 whether to pursue a court appeal, said SES CEO Tom Giles in an interview with NGI Tuesday.

The Mitsubishi Corp.-backed project to develop a 1 Bcf/d liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Long Beach Harbor along the Southern California coast is barely breathing, but still has not been officially declared dead, according to the CEO of Mitsubishi’s Sound Energy Solutions (SES), the proponents of the five-year-old project. The Japanese-based parent company will decide by Friday (June 6) whether to pursue a court appeal, said SES CEO Tom Giles in an interview with NGI last Tuesday.