Diminished

This week’s rally in the cash market appeared ready to pack up its tents and move on as nearly all increases outside the West diminished to about a nickel or less Wednesday. Traders apparently were coming to grips with the realities of relatively little weather-based or industrial load, further fading of storage injection opportunities except in the West, and the continuing lack of tropical storm threats to Gulf of Mexico production expected to last through the rest of the 2011 season.

The shale natural gas industry is “under siege” by some critics and without the public’s support, access to the massive reserves also could be diminished, an industry executive said Wednesday.

Natural gas bulls shouldn’t pin their hopes on a hurricane-inspired rally given the abundance of gas in storage and the diminished relevance of offshore natural gas supplies to the North American market, an analyst said Thursday.

Although cooling load was due to be fairly light in the northern market areas of the Midwest and Northeast and had diminished to some extent over the weekend in the Midcontinent, it remained strong across the southern third of the U.S. and was growing in some parts of the West. The result, abetted by the previous Friday’s 10.5-cent gain of expiring July futures and the return of industrial load from its usual weekend downturn, was higher prices in most of the cash market Monday.

The diminished outlook for U.S. imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one factor that will imperil some gas storage projects in the Southeast/Gulf Coast region, but there still is a risk the region could end up with too much storage withdrawal capacity, according to analysts at Bentek Energy LLC.

The diminished outlook for U.S. imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) is one factor that will imperil some gas storage projects in the Southeast/Gulf Coast region, but there still is a risk the region could end up with too much storage withdrawal capacity, according to analysts at Bentek Energy LLC.

While the refinancing needs of leading U.S. merchant energy companies have diminished to $58 billion from a peak of $90 billion in November 2002, players in the sector continue to grapple with uncertain market rules and regulation, litigation risk and low power prices in many regional power markets, according to a report published last Thursday by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P).

U.S. offshore production of natural gas fell slightly; thenumber of new pipeline projects in the Gulf of Mexico droppeddramatically; Texas — the nation’s leading gas producer — tookhits to its production and consumption levels; California andWyoming experienced a robust boost in production; California sawthe sharpest rise in gas demand; residential users enjoyed theirsecond year of lower delivered gas prices; and pipeline importcapacity expanded considerably.

Providence (RI) Energy Corp. blamed a warm winter and a sharpdrop in oil prices for diminished earnings for the year ended Sept.30. Net income declined to $6.4 million, or $1.09 per share, from$7.8 million, or $1.35 per share, in fiscal 1997. However,operating revenue from the company’s non-regulated business grewmore than five-fold to $33 million.