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In almost an exact blueprint of Friday’s topsy-turvy session,natural gas futures spiked then retraced yesterday as tradersdigested the latest weather news. After gapping higher at the openand putting in a fresh one-month high at $4.43, the Septembercontract succumbed to profit-taking which ushered the prompt monthlower at the close. September finished at $4.348, up 5.2 cents forthe session, but just a fraction of a cent above its low on theday.

Better than expected profits lifted ExxonMobil and Chevron to more than double their second-quarter earnings of a year ago, as they reaped the benefit of surging oil and natural gas prices.

FERC slapped the proposed Trans-Union Interstate Pipeline withsomething of a double-edged sword yesterday. While it issued acertificate for the 42-mile, 430,000 Dth/d pipeline project, itdenied its request to operate it as a single-use line.

Better than expected profits lifted ExxonMobil and Chevron tomore than double their second-quarter earnings of a year ago, asthey reaped the benefit of surging oil and natural gas prices.

Most points experienced double-digit price declines Monday,depressed by lower energy futures and continuing mild weather inthe key Midwest and Northeast market areas.

This week’s seesaw ride in prices continued Thursday withdouble-digit advances in all markets. Wednesday afternoon’s screenrise, which carried over into Thursday, along with severe heat inthe West, were the chief causes of cash strength, sources said.

In what traders called a purely screen-driven cash market,prices achieved double-digit increases at virtually every pointexcept for PG&E citygates, which rose by a little less than adime.

Although industry comments on Order 637 still were tricklinginto FERC late Friday, it was clear that gas producers, both majorsand independents, and industrial customers had some of the biggestproblems with the final order by far, while the interstatepipelines and LDCs sought only minor tweaking of a “discrete” setof issues.

As FERC last week was delivering bad news to the Northeast-boundIndependence Pipeline and associated SupplyLink and MarketLinkprojects, the Commission staff was delivering a report to CapitolHill that concluded new pipeline capacity may be needed for theregion within the next three to five years. It didn’t specify howmuch capacity though (See related story).