Began

In fairly muted summer trading, natural gas futures traders began this week much as they had last week as the August contract traveled a narrow 10-cent range before closing the regular session slightly lower. The prompt-month contract stayed between $4.454 and $4.555 before finishing at $4.510, down nine-tenths of a penny from last Friday’s close.

Over the weekend BP plc began replacing the lower marine riser package (LMRP) containment cap over the Deepwater Horizon’s failed blowout preventer with a new sealing cap assembly. On Monday COO Doug Suttles said the company expected to install the new cap later in the day.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began June 1, will be “very active,” with 18 named storms, including 10 hurricanes, five of them intense (Category Three or greater), forming before the season ends Nov. 30, according to Colorado State University (CSU) forecasters.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which officially began this week, will be “very active,” with 18 named storms, including 10 hurricanes, five of them intense (Category Three or greater), forming before the season ends Nov. 30, according to Colorado State University (CSU) forecasters.

After reaching a two-month high for the spot contract on Tuesday at $4.494, the resulting tumble that began Tuesday afternoon spilled over into Wednesday’s regular trading session as June futures plummeted 18.4 cents to close at $4.158.

Chesapeake Energy Corp. last week began to drastically alter its natural gas-weighted operations in a bid to raise up to $5 billion to repay up to $3.5 billion of senior debt and to increase its investment in liquids-rich plays by up to $1.5 billion.

Under pressure from the general public and state officials, San Francisco-based Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) on Monday issued a general apology to its customers and began offering more details on its massive billion-dollar-plus transition to an advanced metering system for its electric and natural gas utility customers. The utility released a 700-page report on its almost four-year-old effort to deploy smart meters for all of its customers.

The nation’s economy may be slowly rebounding from the recession that began more than two years ago, but the outlook for increased natural gas demand remains unclear, according to Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank.

The nation’s economy may be slowly rebounding from the recession that began more than two years ago, but the outlook for increased natural gas demand remains unclear, according to Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank.