Dropping

Natural gas futures rebounded cautiously Thursday after dropping below the $6.00 mark early in the session on the news that a larger-than-expected 90 Bcf was injected into underground storage facilities last week. The June contract finished at $6.035, down 16.3 cents for the session and 8.5 cents off its $5.95 low.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) said Friday it was dropping its year-long legal effort to force the Bush White House to turn over the names of energy executives and companies that may have influenced the drafting of the administration’s national energy policy.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) said Friday it was dropping its year-long legal effort to force the Bush White House to turn over the names of energy executives and companies that may have influenced the drafting of the administration’s national energy policy.

After dropping a dime in a knee-jerk reaction to slightly bearish storage data (42 Bcf injection) released at 10:30 a.m. EDT, natural gas futures chopped sideways for the rest of the session Thursday as traders groped for fair value in a market that has witnessed a 58-cent trading range since Oct. 1. As it turned out, nothing was settled, with about half the traders, brokers and analysts surveyed by NGI yesterday expecting higher prices Friday and half looking for more weakness. The November contract closed at $3.828, down 9 cents for the session and just above support at $3.795.

Natural gas production appears to have fallen slightly in the second quarter — dropping more than 8% from the same period a year ago, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. A report issued Friday,on the quarterly results of 24 producers that account for 28% of the gas supplies in the Lower 48 has so far found a sequential decline from the first quarter of 0.6%, with gas volumes by the 24 totaling 11,391 MMcf/d.

Natural gas production appears to have fallen slightly in the second quarter — dropping more than 8% from the same period a year ago, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll. A report issued Friday,on the quarterly results of 24 producers that account for 28% of the gas supplies in the Lower 48 has so far found a sequential decline from the first quarter of 0.6%, with gas volumes by the 24 totaling 11,391 MMcf/d.

After dropping lower and then spiking higher in its typical post-storage report theatrics, natural gas futures came back to near unchanged Thursday morning, prompting bulls and bears to turn to something other than storage for their next price clues. Without having to search too far, they found favorable medium and long-lead weather forecasts, which quickly translated into higher natural gas futures prices. August closed 10.2 cents higher for the session at $2.943.

After dropping lower and then spiking higher in its typical post-storage report theatrics, natural gas futures came back to near unchanged Thursday morning, prompting bulls and bears to turn to something other than storage for their next price clues. Without having to search too far, they found favorable medium and long-lead weather forecasts, which quickly translated into higher natural gas futures prices. August closed 10.2 cents higher for the session at $2.943.

Within less than 24 hours after Northwest Natural Gas and Enron Corp. decided to terminate their $2.98 billion stock/debt-assumption deal for the gas utility to buy bankruptcy-mired Enron’s Portland General Electric (PGE) subsidiary, Moody’s Investors Service Friday downgraded PGE and affirmed the gas company’s “stable rating.”