Climbed

As the price of crude oil steadily climbed last week, eclipsing $140 a barrel on Friday, Capitol Hill’s focus was on whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) was doing everything in its power to police the energy futures markets. The consensus was “no,” which lead House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) last Wednesday to ask President Bush to direct the CFTC to use its emergency authority to restore order to the oil and gasoline markets, and the House of Representatives one day later to overwhelmingly pass a bill directing the CFTC to draw on all of its powers, including its emergency authority, to immediately curb excess speculation (see related story).

Prices climbed again Tuesday at most points, continuing to be driven by prior-day futures strength and significant cooling load that is starting to spread from the southern half of the U.S. into the lower reaches of the Midwest and Northeast. However, the bullishness of the first tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season coming and going over the weekend was receding quickly as a market factor.

Dallas-based Atmos Energy Corp. on Tuesday reported fiscal 2006 earnings climbed dramatically on the back of its nonutility operations, which contributed more than half of the year’s profit.

Despite record-tying natural gas storage levels with a month still left in the traditional injection season, November natural gas futures climbed for the sixth consecutive session Friday as funds continued to cover their short positions and traders factored in a major incursion of cold air into the Midwest this week. After trading within a $6.060 to $6.520 range, the prompt month closed at $6.427, up 12.9 cents on the day and a whopping 80.7 cents higher for the week.

Global upstream investments climbed 31% between 2004 and 2005, but the oil and natural gas industry continues to have problems growing production and reserves, and any further downturn in natural gas prices could stifle near-term spending in North America, according to a review by John S. Herold Inc. and Harrison Lovegrove & Co. Ltd.

Global upstream investments climbed 31% between 2004 and 2005, but the oil and natural gas industry continues to have problems growing production and reserves, and any further downturn in natural gas prices could stifle near-term spending in North America, according to a review by John S. Herold Inc. and Harrison Lovegrove & Co. Ltd.

With crude futures continuing to make new highs as violence in the Middle East escalated, natural gas futures also climbed Friday as August natural gas closed out the week on a strong note. Supported by significant heat in a number of U.S. regions, prompt month natural gas ended up settling at $6.347, up 21.8 cents on the day and 82.4 cents higher than the previous week.

Maintaining Monday’s momentum, August natural gas on Tuesday climbed to a high of $5.850 before retracing most of its steps in the afternoon. Despite the morning run-up, the prompt month settled at $5.633, up only 2.5 cents from Monday’s close.

April natural gas futures climbed in Friday morning trade to record a high for the week of $6.810 before easing off in the afternoon. The prompt-month contract ended up settling at $6.646, up 4.5 cents on the day and 14.4 cents lower than the previous week’s close.