Climb

With the continuing climb of crude oil futures following the death of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd, two industry executives took opposing views on the impact of potential demand destruction on crude oil and natural gas prices Tuesday at the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference and Investment Forum in Denver on Tuesday.

Natural gas usage worldwide will climb faster than any other energy source over the next 23 years, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook. Natural gas consumption is projected to increase 2.3% per year, or a total of 69%, through 2025 to 156 Tcf from 92 Tcf in 2002.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., having gone through a full year of revamping its business strategy, on Friday saw its revenues climb 10% on higher prices, but said that overall production volumes fell on asset sales over the past year. The company reported net income of $506 million ($2.12/share), compared with $405 million ($1.59) in 2Q2004.

Seeming to hitch its wagon to petroleum futures once again, June natural gas followed both crude’s plunge in the morning and its climb in the afternoon. With a hint of irony, June natural gas ended up settling 5.2 cents lower on the day at $6.748, the same price at which May natural gas futures expired a day earlier.

Bouncing back a little from last week’s declines, January natural gas futures followed crude higher Monday, hitting a high of $6.94 before settling at $6.923, up 12.7 cents on the session.

Bouncing back a little from last week’s declines, January natural gas futures followed crude higher Monday, hitting a high of $6.94 before settling at $6.923, up 12.7 cents on the session.

The market paused to figuratively catch its breath with a mixed price performance Thursday following three days of climbing quotes in which the gains tended to get substantially larger each day. Various points ranged from almost 30 cents lower to a little more than 30 cents higher.

Natural gas futures were down modestly in midday trading as traders took a breather following a hectic three days of volatile price action in which the November contract spiked more than 90 cents. Not even the weekly release of fresh natural gas storage inventory data, featuring a 64 Bcf injection, could tilt the scales in either bulls’ or bears’ direction, leaving the market to trade mostly sideways Thursday morning.

After trading lower for most of the day, October natural gas futures — in its first day as the front month — climbed higher in the afternoon to close at $5.234, up 4.5 cents from Friday’s close.