Climbed

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.

Boosted higher in part due to the record day of its liquid counterpart, August natural gas futures on Wednesday climbed 5.9 cents to expire at $6.048, while September futures jumped 12 cents to close at $6.142.

Getting a little boost from the $1.53 uptick in crude futures, August natural gas futures steadily climbed throughout Wednesday to settle 7.2 cents up at $5.977. The prompt month registered its second consecutive day higher following Monday’s 28.4-cent collapse, which brought August just below $6.

In another stunning display of bullish behavior, natural gas futures climbed higher for the third-straight session Friday as traders distanced themselves from bearish supply data released Thursday and focused on an updated forecast for the upcoming hurricane season.

The death toll has climbed to seven following the rupture of a natural gas distribution pipeline outside of a small strip mall in Toronto last Thursday, according to the Toronto Fire Marshal’s Office.

The body count of lost energy traders and related support staff has climbed sharply in the past two weeks after Williams Cos. downsized its staff by another 210 employees, Reliant Resources Inc. cut close to 135, and Albuquerque-based PNM Resources Inc. eliminated 85 positions. The new cuts followed those by Houston’s UBS Warburg Energy, which fired 100 of its energy trading staff, and Duke Energy Corp. said it was considering reducing its 500-member trading force to “fit” the current conditions.

The body count of lost energy traders and related support staff climbed higher Thursday, after Williams Cos. downsized its staff by another 100 employees, Reliant Resources Inc. cut close to 135, and Albuquerque-based PNM Resources Inc. eliminated 85 positions. The new cuts followed those just days ago by Houston’s UBS Warburg Energy, which fired 100 of its energy trading staff (see Daily GPI, Aug. 21), and Duke Energy Corp. said it was considering reducing its 500-member trading force to “fit” the current conditions.

In many cases cash prices were coming down Thursday about as fast as they had climbed Wednesday, and at some primarily western points Thursday’s losses were greater than the gains of the day before. A majority of drops were in the range of 30-40 cents, but overall they ran from as small as about 12 cents (Kosci) to nearly half a dollar (Transco Zone 6).

The number of domestic natural gas wells drilled during the third quarter of this year rose a whopping 24%, while oil wells drilled climbed at a slower pace — 8%, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Quarterly Well Completion Report.