Came

A lot of cash points came close to matching the screen’s rise ofalmost a nickel Wednesday, give or take a penny or two. In additionto the futures influence, there was “a little bit” of cold here andthere to help generate a modest price rally, though still notenough cold to help much, sources said.

Futures came under heavy selling pressure early in the dayMonday, and the market never looked back as traders began discountto the threat of Hurricane Georges causing a major impact to gasproduction. “There was only one certainty you could bank on cominginto the market [Monday] morning. Momentum-whichever way the marketmoved at the open would dictate the direction for the rest of thetrading session,” a New York broker said. The October contract wasdealt the largest losses, slipping 15 cents to limp off the boardat $2.031.

The futures market again came under selling pressure onWednesday as traders embraced the possibility Hurricane Georgeswould not be a threat to natural gas concerns in the Gulf ofMexico. The October contract was able to post an optimistic open at$2.23 before profit taking led the contract to settle at $2.131, a5.5 cent loss for the day.

The futures market came under heavy selling pressure earlyThursday, adding to losses that began in the Wednesday eveningAccess session. However, the October contract was unable to broachsupport at $2.075, and buying enabled the prompt month to recoverslightly in the afternoon. October ended the day down 10.3 cents at$2.138.

The futures market again came under heavy selling pressure onWednesday as new bearish technical factors added to the alreadynegative fundamental outlook. The September contract never had achance, managing to post a high yesterday that matched Tuesday’slow, while slipping 6.6 cents to settle at $1.762. Estimated volumesubstantiated the price move, with a whopping 93,150 contractschanging hands.

The futures market came under hefty selling pressure right fromthe outset Tuesday, as the market put aside hurricane fears toconcentrate on the overall bearish outlook for natural gas. TheSeptember contract sustained the largest losses, slipping 9.8 centsto settle at $1.828 for the day.

FERC last week came down on the side of Phelps Dodge Corp. in acomplex contract dispute with El Paso Natural Gas. It ordered theTexas-based pipeline to either add the delivery points sought byPhelps Dodge, or to show cause within a month why – due tooperational and capacity constraints – it cannot do so.

It hardly came as a surprise to anyone when cash prices took along, hard fall Thursday. The previous day’s screen dive had givena none-too-subtle signal of where cash was going. Double-digitdecreases were prevalent at virtually all points, with some lossesreaching 20 cents.

Natural Gas Clearinghouse’s (NGC) controversial transportationcontracts for 1.3 Bcf/d with El Paso Natural Gas came under fireagain last week as producers and marketers hammered away at thealleged anticompetitive nature of the firm agreements.