Extremely

Despite another blast of extremely cold air and an early price push to the upside, natural gas futures slipped lower Monday as traders reacted to updated weather forecasts confirming that at least a temporary warm-up is in store for much of the country. With that the February contract fell 12.8 cents to $5.396 — its lowest daily close since Jan. 14. At 89,844 estimated volume was light considering it was the third-to-last trading day before expiration-day.

Consultants at Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (EEA) are predicting that given normal weather, natural gas storage levels will drop to near record lows at 600 Bcf by the end of the traditional withdrawal season because of an alarming decline in U.S. natural gas producing capacity. However, an oil and gas engineer with the Energy Information Administration said he isn’t buying any “sky is falling” scenarios. He said productive capacity is very near where it has been historically.

Despite indications — such as high gas prices and some analysts’ opinions — that gas supply is getting extremely short approaching the winter heating season, the American Gas Association (AGA) on Tuesday assured the nation that taken together supply fundamentals, including reserves, storage, imports and pipeline capacity, “look solid” and will be “adequate to meet customers’ needs” this winter.

Despite indications — such as $4 gas prices and some analysts’ opinions — that gas supply is getting extremely short approaching the winter heating season, the American Gas Association (AGA) on Tuesday assured the nation that taken together supply fundamentals, including reserves, storage, imports and pipeline capacity, “look solid” and will be “adequate to meet customers’ needs” this winter.

Officials at Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) are expecting extremely depressed gas prices and wide basis differentials in the Rocky Mountain region this year to provide enough of an incentive for producers to finally step up to the plate and support an eastern greenfield pipeline project, and possibly the switching of Wyoming Interstate to westbound flow to support demand from Kern River shippers at the Opal hub.

Officials at Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) are expecting extremely depressed gas prices and wide basis differentials in the Rocky Mountain region this year to provide enough of an incentive for producers to finally step up to the plate and support an eastern greenfield pipeline project, and possibly the switching of Wyoming Interstate to westbound flow to support demand from Kern River shippers at the Opal hub.

Citing the “extremely cold weather” forecast for its market area, CIG declared a Strained Operating Condition that took effect Friday until further notice. The pipeline anticipated “very limited ability to handle imbalances caused by variations between scheduled receipts and deliveries and actual gas flow,” especially during the weather conditions that had been predicted for Friday and Saturday. As of Friday CIG did not anticipate any need to issue an OFO as long as receipt shortage or delivery overage imbalances did not occur.

Breaking out of the extremely-tight, 4-cent trading range that corralled prices for much of the session, natural gas futures moved lower Wednesday afternoon on the heels of a disappointing (for bull traders) announcement that only 124 Bcf was pulled from storage last week. The selling pressure was felt immediately after the 2 p.m. EST release and by 2:30 p.m. February had sunk to a new, life-of-contract low at $2.04. A slight up-tick at the closing bell lifted the prompt month to a $2.076 settle, down 3 cents for the session.

Enron Corp.’s bloodletting continued Wednesday, as the stock price took another hit in extremely heavy volume, with close to 50 million shares trading hands. The stock finally closed at $16.54, down another $3.25, or 16.42%, from the previous day, after rocking back and forth as one of the biggest losers in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange. It reached a depth of $15.51 before climbing again. Pouring salt on the wound, several Wall Street analysts also cut their ratings Wednesday, including Prudential Securities, which advised its clients to sell.