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Massachusetts Attorney General (AG) Maura Healey last Thursday asked the state’s Department of Public Utilities (DPU) to open an investigation into phasing out natural gas amid the transition toward alternative fuels by 2050.

The year started as 2019 had ended for leading natural gas marketers, with 1Q2020 continuing the sales declines that have hampered the industry for four consecutive quarters, according to NGI’s Top North American Natural Gas Marketers rankings.

Natural gas futures scratched out a modest gain Monday after Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall a day earlier, forcing shut-ins but also bringing cooler air to the South. Entrenched worries about weakness in demand from liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities curbed price momentum.

Natural gas futures were slightly lower but still range bound to finish the week as the July Nymex contract swung in a less than 10-cent band before settling Friday at $1.782, off 4.0 cents day/day. August was down 3.1 cents to $1.886.

The oil market may begin to recover next month, but U.S. midstream companies still face a “challenging” environment as cash flow, low pipeline utilization and other factors may stall a return to financial health, according to Wood Mackenzie.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, aka OPEC-plus, on Saturday agreed to extend May and June oil supply cuts for another month to continue rebalancing an oversupplied global crude market.

Facing a 13.3% national unemployment rate and the negative impacts of continuing Covid-19 mitigation efforts, President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order (EO) directing federal agencies to “take all reasonable measures to speed infrastructure investments and to speed other actions in addition to such investments that will strengthen the economy and return Americans to work,” including setting aside some Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act restrictions.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a proposed order that it said would codify best practices for benefit-cost analysis in rulemakings and provide clarity for states, local communities and industry.

Natural gas futures crept up early Thursday following a smaller-than-expected storage injection, but significant momentum proved difficult to gather amid ongoing demand uncertainty and the specter of a tropical storm nearing the Gulf Coast. The July Nymex contract traded in a narrow range of gains and losses throughout the day and settled at $1.822/MMBtu, up one-tenth of a cent day/day. August rose two-tenths of a cent to $1.917.