Crawl

Rocky Mountain natural gas production is at a crawl and the economy isn’t moving any faster, but El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline Project is on track to begin service in 2011, executives said last week.

Rocky Mountain natural gas production is at a crawl and the economy isn’t moving any faster, but El Paso Corp.’s Ruby Pipeline Project is on track to begin service in 2011, an executive said Monday.

Although it inched higher to start the week, the natural gas futures market lacked the buying oomph Monday to match crude oil in achieving new highs. The June natural gas contract finished at $6.424, up 2.3 cents for the session, but down nearly a dime from its highs last week. At 81,876, estimated volume was moderate, suggesting the there was ample selling to repel the buying interest.

Relatively light air conditioning load outside the West kept cash prices in a general decline Thursday, although nearly all drops were less than a dime and many points were flat or managed tiny gains. A bearish Nymex response to the storage report, prospects for continued weakness in weather fundamentals and the typical loss of industrial demand over a weekend are likely to have quotes falling again Friday, sources said.

“It’s been a fun market recently if you like roller-coasters.” AGulf Coast marketer was referring to Thursday pricing that onceagain started significantly lower but later moved higher to settlenear the top end of daily ranges. Softening continued at mostpoints but was very mild compared to the larger drops earlier thisweek. A majority of the declines were about a nickel or less, and afew scattered points even turned in flat performances.

This week’s general price downturn almost came to a haltWednesday, but mild softness remained the norm for most points.Quotes tended to range from flat to down about a nickel. Marketareas were getting colder but not by much, sources said, and thatwas outweighed by further softness in futures. With little toinfluence it, trading activity remains on the quiet side, theysaid.

The upward track of cash prices continued Wednesday, but at asnail’s pace compared to Tuesday’s skyrocketing pyrotechnics. Mostof the new increases were quite meager, ranging from a penny or soto about a nickel. The first significant winter weather that manyareas have seen so far this season was credited with keeping theNovember price rally going, albeit modestly.