Dominated

Tight natural gas and shale gas boosted British Columbia’s (BC) reserves numbers to record levels from 2009 to 2010, and more gains are expected as development continues, according to the province’s energy regulator.

Nearly all of the cash market remained in a downhill slide Monday as mild to cool weather dominated the overall outlook, and cold conditions returning in a couple of regions proved unable to generate enough heating load at their associated pricing points. The restoration of industrial demand from its normal weekend hiatus had essentially no bullish impact.

Prices finally interrupted the up-down-up seesaw changes that had dominated Monday-Wednesday trading by continuing to go in the same direction for the most part Thursday for the second day in a row. But they were seeing more softening than the day before, particularly at Midcontinent/Midwest locations.

Mild softness dominated the cash market Tuesday. There was still a little bit of both heating load in Canada and the northern U.S. and cooling load in the southern tier of states, but neither demand source was strong enough to support spot prices. The previous day’s decline of 2.3 cents by May futures, which will expire Wednesday, was another slightly bearish influence for the physical market.

May natural gas was again confined to a narrow 6-cent trading range and eased slightly in options-dominated trading Tuesday.

It failed to surprise any traders when prices fell at all but one point Friday. Despite cooling trends in the Midwest and South, moderation dominated the general weather outlook; the latest storage withdrawal report reinforced the perception of plentiful inventories (especially when the Producing region had an unusually early net injection); prompt-month futures had fallen 4 cents on the previous day; and the decline of industrial load during a weekend was a minor bearish factor as usual.

Modest softness dominated at a solid majority of locations Friday as outside the Upper Plains and much of the Midwest weekend weather was expected to range from merely cold (a little above freezing) to cool. The relative lack of heating load was reflected in overall pricing.

For its Colorado utility operations, which are now dominated by coal-fired generation, Xcel Energy has told state regulators it expects its natural gas use to grow by 50% in the next eight years, while renewables grow and coal generation declines in smaller percentages.

For its Colorado utility operations, which are now dominated by coal-fired generation, Xcel Energy has told state regulators it expects its natural gas use to grow by 50% in the next eight years, while renewables grow and coal generation declines in smaller percentages.