Couple

With the first freezes of the season forecast in parts of the Midwest in the next couple of days and even the southern tier of states due to feel some significant chill by midweek, cash prices rose at all but one point Monday. The advance also got major support from the previous Friday’s spike of 17.2 cents by November futures and — to a much lesser extent — the return of industrial load from its usual weekend decline.

A couple from Susquehanna County, PA, at the center of a controversial mineral rights case wants the state’s Supreme Court to throw out a lower court’s ruling and end the anxiety shared by energy companies and landowners alike over uncertain ownership rights in the Marcellus Shale.

Although a shale-produced natural gas surplus remains, it is at a lower level than many expected and thus a couple of drivers could send prices back into a period of volatility, according to Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist for ConocoPhillips in Houston.

A couple from Susquehanna County, PA, at the center of a controversial mineral rights case wants the state’s Supreme Court to throw out a lower court’s ruling and end the anxiety shared by energy companies and landowners alike over uncertain ownership rights in the Marcellus Shale.

Although a shale-produced natural gas surplus remains, it is at a lower level than many expected and thus a couple of drivers could send prices back into a period of volatility, according to Jim Duncan, chief analyst and commodity market strategist for ConocoPhillips in Houston.

After climbing a couple of cents each day for the first four days of the week, cash point averages across the board gave all of the premium back and then some as a vast majority of prices dropped by more than 20 cents on Friday.

The official start of fall is still a couple of weeks away, but try proving that to a soft gas market. Prices dropped at nearly all points Tuesday as mild forecasts dominated the weather outlook and a 17.8-cent dive by futures on the previous Friday contributed further bearish pressure.

Gulf South has made a couple of small changes in the scheduling of meter outages during in-line inspection pigging on Index 287 in the New Orleans area that began Tuesday and will continue through Aug. 25 (see Daily GPI, July 26). See the bulletin board for details.

After warning market-area customers of a potential Overage Alert Day in the previous couple of days, Florida Gas Transmission issued one Friday with a 20% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.