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A Gulf Coast producer couldn’t pinpoint any single factor behind a major price rebound Tuesday that included spikes of a dollar or more at a few Northeast citygates, but said it more likely was related to a combination of several relatively minor things. However, a marketer in the Lower Midwest saw one overriding reason for the sharp increases: more power generation load.

LNG boosters were ultimately disheartened at the end of 2005 when the United States couldn’t seem to pull in all of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) it wanted. In fact, last year saw a decline in LNG imports from 2004. However, U.S. markets can look forward to more supply security in the coming years, according to Edinburgh, UK-based Wood Mackenzie.

After ignoring the price drops in the petroleum futures complex almost entirely on Tuesday, October natural gas futures couldn’t look away a second day in a row. In addition to petroleum weakness, prompt month natural gas was helped lower Wednesday by positive news from the Gulf of Mexico, settling at $11.201, down 45.6 cents on the day.

Uncle Sam offered the Terminator-turned-governor an offer he and California couldn’t refuse Thursday: a government-industry-university research team and up to $50 million in a five-year program to develop a hydrogen-based transportation infrastructure in the nation’s most populous and motor vehicle-inundated state.

As NGI sources had suspected the day before, the cash market couldn’t keep rising indefinitely without visible means of support. Sure enough, eastern prices finally reacted Thursday to the one-two punch of weakening futures and only a modicum of weather-related demand by registering declines that were mostly in the vicinity of a dime but ranged from about a nickel to a little more than 20 cents.

California energy officials held their breath Monday and bracedthemselves for what might be the severest test yet for the state’soverworked electricity infrastructure and overheated wholesalepower market.

Enterprise Oil, the largest independent exploration andproduction company in Europe, apparently couldn’t resist the marketopportunities in the U.S. any longer. The company paid $127.3million last week for all of drilling company R&B Falcon Corp’sE&P interests in the Gulf of Mexico. The transaction covers a50% stake in the Boomvang field about 100 miles south of Galveston,TX, and a major stake in the Gyrafalcon prospect, which is about100 miles offshore Lousisiana in Green Canyon block 20.

Enterprise Oil, the largest independent exploration andproduction company in Europe, apparently couldn’t resist the marketopportunity in the U.S. any longer. The company paid $127.3 millionyesterday for all of drilling company R&B Falcon Corp’s E&Pinterests in the Gulf of Mexico, which includes a 50% stake in theBoomvang field about 100 miles south of Galveston, TX, and a majorstake in the Gyrafalcon prospect, which is about 100 miles offshoreLousisiana in Green Canyon block 20.

Although you couldn’t tell from rapidly depleting gas storagelevels or lofty gas prices, this winter turned out to be thewarmest on record for the United States, according to a report bythe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And it was thethird winter in a row in which record warmth cooked the UnitedStates.