Break

After flirting with new lows for much of the morning on Wednesday, natural gas futures made a break lower in the afternoon as traders continued their mass exodus of long positions on the news that the market was able to post yet another robust storage injection figure. The October contract limped off the board at $1.83, down 9.5 cents for the day and a whopping 56.3 cents less than where it was when it became the prompt contract a month ago.

With wholesale gas costs plummeting, Dominion East Ohio Gas said its customers will pay 25% less for natural gas in November, December and January than they paid during the same months a year earlier. Under a gas cost recovery (GCR) decrease filed on Wednesday with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Dominion East Ohio sales customers, starting Oct. 26, will pay $5.38/Mcf, down 12.8% from the current $6.17/Mcf and down 25% from the $7.18/Mcf they paid during the third quarter last year.

Xcel Energy Inc. on Monday filed a proposal with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to reduce the natural gas component of its Colorado retail rates by $571 million a year. If approved, the gas cost adjustment would reduce the delivered price of gas by more than 40% beginning in October.

Created from an existing company in March, Sequent Energy Management LP, a subsidiary of AGL Resources, is taking the natural gas wholesale trading, marketing and asset management industries by storm, drawing traders from many of the major players in the energy trading business. “We are not making any friends at Dynegy or Enron,” said Rick Duszynski, CEO and president of Sequent Energy.

After shuffling to new 16-month lows for the second session in a row Thursday, natural gas futures steadied in the afternoon as several large commercial accounts supported the market with their buying presence. The September contract finished at $2.811, down 3.7 cents for the session but almost a nickel higher than its $3.765 low.

After being created from a previous company in March, Sequent Energy Management LP, a subsidiary of AGL Resources, is taking the natural gas wholesale trading, marketing and asset management industries by storm, drawing traders from many of the major players in the energy trading business. “We are not making any friends at Dynegy or Enron,” said Rick Duszynski, CEO and president of Sequent Energy.

Tampa-based TECO Power Services and Panda Energy International announced on Thursday that they have begun initial construction and site preparation work on their 2,300 MW Gila River power station in Gila Bend, AZ. The companies will build the project under a joint venture agreement.

After thrice testing, but failing to break beneath support Thursday, natural gas futures rebounded at the New York Mercantile Exchange as traders put an end to a nine-day, 70-cent price slide. The June contract received the biggest buying boost, closing 4.4 cents higher at $4.527.

The May aftermarket began at price levels considerably below first-of-month indexes in nearly all cases, and several traders advised against anyone holding their breath while awaiting an upturn of any significance. They cited a screen plunge Monday that was about twice as large as any of last week’s single-day drops, a general near-term weather outlook that remains on the benign side, and expectations of another big storage injection report (Lehman Brothers is projecting 70 Bcf).