Derived

March natural gas futures soared higher Thursday on a propellant derived from economic concerns mixed with colder-leaning forecasts. Not even a sub-200 Bcf natural gas storage withdrawal report could deter the prompt-month contract’s spike, which reached a high of $8.810 before settling the day at $8.772, up 38.4 cents from Wednesday’s close.

An estimated $1.7 billion, or 17% of $9.9 billion in total royalty revenues collected, was distributed to 35 states in fiscal year 2005 as their share of the federal revenues derived from oil and natural gas production, the Interior Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) said.

Deja vu? Similar to last Monday’s market, rising cash prices Friday derived much of their support from previous-day futures strength. They certainly weren’t getting much benefit from weather fundamentals. Although high temperatures in the 90s and above continued to reign from the western Gulf Coast through the Midcontinent, desert Southwest and Rockies into parts of the Upper Plains, those conditions were largely unchanged from Thursday. The key Midwest and Northeast market areas remain unusually mild for early August.

In a case that points up the marketplace failure of FERC’scapacity release rules, Consumers Energy and the Commission’senforcement section have come to a no-fault agreement over chargesConsumers collected payments in excess of maximum lawful rates forupstream pipeline capacity released to shippers.