Dropped

The natural gas futures market on Tuesday continued its recent bout of range-trading as the March contract dropped 15.8 cents from Friday’s finish to close at $5.310.

Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Co. and its regulated local distribution company (LDC) had their credit rating dropped from double-A to single-A (“A+”) Monday by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) because of added risk from nonutility ventures, such as the Gill Ranch underground gas storage facility in Northern California. Nevertheless, S&P described the company’s outlook as “stable.”

Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Co. and its regulated local distribution company (LDC) had their credit rating dropped from double-A to single-A (“A+”) Monday by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) because of added risk from nonutility ventures, such as the Gill Ranch underground gas storage facility in Northern California. Nevertheless, S&P described the company’s outlook as “stable.”

Say what you will about storage caverns bloated with gas and an oversupplied U.S. market; when the mercury dropped earlier this month, pipeline imports of Canadian gas as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from incoming tankers and terminal-based storage helped to save the day, according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

Say what you will about storage caverns bloated with gas and an oversupplied U.S. market; when the mercury dropped earlier this month, pipeline imports of Canadian gas as well as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from incoming tankers and terminal-based storage helped to save the day, according to analysts at Barclays Capital.

Natural gas futures bulls were corralled on Tuesday as the December contract reversed course from Monday’s gains and dropped below the important $4.60 support level. The prompt-month contract put in a low of $4.436 in morning trade and ended up closing out the regular session at $4.467, down 20.3 cents from Monday’s finish.

October natural gas futures went off the board on Monday with a bearish bang as values dropped under the weight of the recent advance. October slid 25.5 cents on the day to terminate at $3.730, while the November contract wasn’t nearly as weak in trimming 11.8 cents during the regular session to $4.830.

Deprived of prior-day futures support and still unable to find much in the way of either cooling or heating load, the cash market dropped at all points Friday. The usual weekend decline of industrial demand added a bit of extra price bearishness.

First quarter domestic oil and natural gas drilling activity dropped to levels not seen since 2004, marking the end of six consecutive years of first quarter growth, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said in a report released last Wednesday.