Charm

The third time was a charm yesterday for bulls in the natural gas pit. After slipping lower Tuesday and Wednesday after two straight higher opens, gas futures added to early gains Thursday as traders rallied amid bullish weather news and technical factors. Gains were almost uniform across the front months, with summer strip advancing 24.3 cents to close at $5.502. The May contract, meanwhile, was 24 cents stronger at $5.422.

The third time was a charm yesterday for bulls in the gas pit atNymex as locals and technical traders covered shorts en masse afterdiscovering a technical blip on their charts. After thrice testingand failing to develop beneath the $5.74 level Wednesday eveningand yesterday morning, the market rocketed Thursday afternoon, ledby a March contract that rumbled 67.3 cents higher to close at$6.38.

Fueled by yet another bullish storage report released Wednesdayafternoon that dovetailed with an increasingly optimistic technicaloutlook, natural gas futures rocketed higher yesterday as localsand commercial traders reentered the market as buyers. However,after cresting near the all-time prompt month high of $4.60 earlyin the afternoon, the July contract was hit with a light wave ofprofit taking into the close. Nevertheless, July finished with aneat 17.3 cents gain to $4.551.

The second time was a charm for bears at Nymex yesterday whenthey succeeded in taking natural gas below key support afterfailing to do so earlier in the session. Sources pointed totechnical selling that entered the fray when the May contract wasunable to climb back to Monday’s $2.945 high as a major contributorto yesterday’s losses. However, declines were not limited to theprompt month as moderate losses pervaded the entire 12-month strip.The May and June each finished down 6.7 cents at $2.822 and $2.844respectively.

The third time was not the charm. After avoiding the usualsoftness associated with lower weekend demand for two weeks in arow, prices finally bowed to the inevitable Friday and dropped bysmall amounts of a nickel or less nearly across the board.

Maybe the third time will be a charm for El Paso Natural Gas.After two failed open seasons — one of which ended last week —the pipeline is left holding the greater part of the 1.35 BBtu/d ofsoon-to-be-available firm capacity on its system. El Paso now hopesto do a negotiated arrangement for the California-bound capacity— similar to the one it worked out with Dynegy Marketing andTrade two years ago.

Maybe the third time will be a charm for El Paso Natural Gas.After two failed open seasons — one of which ended this week —the pipeline still is left holding the greater part of the 1.35BBtu/d of soon-to-be-available firm capacity on its system. El Pasonow hopes to do a negotiated arrangement for the California-boundcapacity-similar to the one it worked out with Dynegy Marketing andTrade two years ago.

For the fourth straight trading session, natural gas futuresraced off to a fast start Wednesday as locals and speculators triedagain to push the market through key resistance and above therecent trading range. But unlike the failure and subsequent sellingthat plagued the market on the prior three occasions, yesterday’smarket was able to hold on and add to gains late in the day. TheAugust contract finished at $2.253, up 5.5 cents.

Hoping the second time is the charm, Duke subsidiary TexasEastern Transmission announced Wednesday an open season for 300,000Dth/d of firm capacity on its proposed Spectrum Pipeline project.The open season will last from May 7 to June 4.