Breaking

As Frances was breaking apart over Georgia and the Carolinas Tuesday, all eyes in the gas market quickly turned to Hurricane Ivan, which the National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicated may take a track similar to, but more westerly than, recent Hurricane Charley into the eastern Gulf of Mexico, possibly disrupting gas and oil production.

Breaking a five-session series of lower-lows and lower-highs, the natural gas futures market turned tentatively higher Wednesday as continued and steady end-user buying was enough to meet fund and commercial selling. Modest gains were seen throughout the six-year strip at Nymex and the September contract eked out a 0.9-cent advance to close Wednesday at $5.382.

Striking lower for the third consecutive day, August natural gas futures on Friday came close to breaking through the psychological $6 mark, reaching a low of $6.07 on the day.

Breaking the five-day string of settling lower, the Nymex May natural gas futures contract on Tuesday fought its way to a gain of 4.4 cents. After falling to a low of $5.485 around noon eastern time, the prompt month spent the rest of the afternoon clawing its way back up to settle at $5.553.

Rather than dealing with “one gargantuan bill,” the Senate should pick out the energy provisions that have the broadest support and are likely to do the most good and pass them individually or in small packages, suggested the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a Capitol Hill newspaper article last Tuesday.

Rather than dealing with “one gargantuan bill,” the Senate should pick out the energy provisions that have the broadest support and are likely to do the most good and pass them individually or in small packages, suggested the ranking Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a Capitol Hill newspaper article Tuesday.

After bending, but not completely breaking lower on the news that a paltry 52 Bcf was pulled from underground storage facilities last week, natural gas futures prices rebounded Thursday in sympathy with frigid temperatures and spiking cash prices. The February contract finished at $7.094, up 21.6 cents for the session.

Concluding that the existing natural gas supply chain is “near the breaking point” despite abundant resources in the United States, the House task force on natural gas in a report last Tuesday placed much of the blame for restricted supplies on the federal government for its conflicting policies that promote gas consumption yet deny producers access to gas-rich federal lands.

Concluding that the current natural gas supply chain is “near the breaking point” despite abundant resources in the United States, the House task force on natural gas in a report Tuesday placed much of the blame for restricted supplies on the federal government for its conflicting policies that encourage gas consumption yet deny producers access to gas-rich federal lands.