Bringing

A U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project is turning stranded natural gas at marginal, or low-production, oil fields into fuel for distributed electric power. The breakthrough is bringing previously idle oil fields back into production and could boost domestic oil production by some 28 million b/year within the next 10 years.

Bringing the streak to six consecutive lower closes and a loss of nearly a dollar, July natural gas futures on Monday dipped below $7 to close at $6.940, down 19 cents from Friday’s close. With expiration around the corner on Wednesday, the prompt month has shed 97.8 cents since its June 15 close at $7.918.

Bringing to a close its natural gas pipeline safety violations case against Dominion Peoples last Thursday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced that it has approved a settlement between the utility and the PUC’s prosecutory staff that fines the company $50,000.

Bringing to a close its natural gas pipeline safety violations case against Dominion Peoples on Thursday, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) announced that it has approved a settlement between the utility and the PUC’s prosecutory staff that fines the company $50,000.

July natural gas futures continued lower on Wednesday, bringing the down-day streak to three and the cumulative loss to 52.7 cents during that period. The prompt month reached a low of $7.350 before closing out the day’s regular session at $7.391, down 12.8 cents from Tuesday.

Traders continued to damage the recent bullish case on Tuesday as June natural gas futures dropped an additional 14.2 cents to close at $7.637, bringing the week’s losses to date to 30.1 cents.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last Monday asked Congress to approve a $28 million increase in funding for fiscal year 2008, bringing the agency’s proposed budget for the year to $255.4 million.

Bringing to a close a week of large moves in both directions, February natural gas futures ended on a high note Friday. After recording a high of $7.190, the contract closed out the week 27 cents higher at $7.175, up 27 cents on the day and 28.9 cents higher than the previous Friday’s close. February options went off the board Friday and February futures will follow suit Monday.

Bringing the tally to four days of consecutively higher settlements, November natural gas futures Wednesday soared during the session to put in a $6.180 high before slipping lower to close at $5.995, up 23.6 cents on the day. One broker attributed the move to a combination of Indian summer-like temperatures in the East and a bounce off of significant support late last week.