Extremely

There were no expiration day heroics for bulls Wednesday. Despite the bullish combination of extremely oversold conditions and modestly constructive storage data, natural gas futures tumbled again as traders used the September contract as a battering ram to reach a new 19-month low. Including Wednesday’s 12-cent decline and $2.295 close, the September contract suffered losses in each of its last 10 trading sessions, trimming a whopping $1.17 or 34% from its Aug. 15 value.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared an extremely stringent systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO for Saturday. The order had zero tolerance for positive daily imbalances and carried penalties of $5/Dth.

The extremely higher costs of natural gas and electricity lastyear are reflected in the financial results announced Tuesday byone of the Pacific Northwest’s major combination energy companies,Bellevue, WA-based Puget Energy. The holding company for the stateof Washington’s largest investor-owned utility, Puget Sound Energy,recorded $40 million in receivables for excess power provided toCalifornia’s independent grid operator, Cal-ISO.

While gas prices remain extremely high, R. Skip Horvath,president of the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA), last weekurged state regulators to be patient until the record number of gasrigs operating can do their work and provide desperately neededsupply increases.

Reflecting the uncertainty of the regulatory process andextremely tight time frames, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp.Monday dropped plans for three of five temporary natural gas-firedpeaking power generation plants it had proposed as a stopgapmeasure to meet expected power shortages next summer.

After trading within an extremely tight, 3.5-cent range for mostof yesterday’s session, natural gas futures were lifted by a waveof buying that hit the market literally seconds after the AmericanGas Association released one of its most bullish storage reports sofar this injection season.

After being held to an extremely-tight, 6-cent trading range formuch of the trading session yesterday, natural gas futures cameunder a wave of selling pressure moments upon the release of freshstorage data and reacted by tumbling dramatically into the closingbell. Plumbing a new 5-week low at $3.91, the August contractfinished at $4.031, 22.6 cent lower for the day.

With little in the way of technical or fundamental news, naturalgas futures were held to an extremely-tight, 4-cent range in quiettrade yesterday. By finishing at $2.949, the May contract was just0.1 cents below its opening price and 2.2 cents lower for the day.Estimated volume was thin, with only 31,720 contracts changinghands.

In the aftermath of an extremely critical consultant’s report onits handling of a prospective asset sale, Southern California Gashas reached a settlement with one part of the state regulatorycommission and is separately trying to reopen the possible sale ofits smallest Los Angeles Basin underground natural gas storagefacility in an eastern Los Angeles suburb. An administrative lawjudge (ALJ) with the California Public Utilities Commission isconsidering whether to recommend the deal to the full five-memberCPUC.