Cited

The U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy Tuesday unveiled a five-part plan to tackle the major energy challenges cited by business and community leaders.

Futures were mixed in light pre-inventory report trading Wednesday. Short-term traders noted little in the way of directional trading and cited forecasts of warmer eastern weather expected to take some of the edge off any weather-driven advances. At the close February futures fell one-tenth of a penny to $4.287 and March added 1.1 cents to $4.298. February crude oil fell 37 cents to $91.12/bbl.

The Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Monday cited National Grid, a major supplier of natural gas and electricity to the U.S. Northeast, for alleged serious violations of trenching safety standards that led to an employee being injured following the June collapse of a natural gas line trench in Boston. National Grid faces a total of $36,500 in proposed fines.

Natural gas futures drew to a mixed close Tuesday as traders cited little in the way of new fundamental data and noted the rolling of short positions into more deferred contract months. At the close November futures rose 2.8 cents to $3.629 and December fell 1.8 cents to $3.992. November crude oil lost 54 cents to $81.67/bbl.

A number of cash points on Friday made it three in a row as a fair amount of market averages declined. Traders cited the weak screen and lack of bullish fundamentals for the week’s dip.

June natural gas futures gained ground Friday as traders cited a lack of sellers, a positive employment report and a market divorced from the shell-shocked petroleum and equities markets.

Due to forecasts of mild Southeast weather, Southern Natural Gas cited projections of high storage injection requirements during the weekend in announcing that an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances would be in effect on its system Saturday until further notice. Tiered imbalance penalties will be assessed to shippers exceeding allocated deliveries by 2% or more (those with long imbalances of less than 2% or 200 Dth/d will not be penalized).

As it did a week earlier, Southern Natural Gas implemented an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances starting Saturday until further notice. The pipeline cited “historically high storage inventory levels and projected high injection requirements” for the Oct. 4-5 weekend.

ExxonMobil Corp., a constant target of environmental groups, is the “green company of the year,” according to Forbes Magazine. Forbes cited ExxonMobil’s plethora of natural gas projects and its big bet on renewable technology.