Fail

Tired of exploring the upper end of the range during the prior two sessions only to fail, natural gas futures traders opted to take the low road instead on Friday. Trading within a minimalist $6.02 to $6.115 range, March natural gas futures were actually able to break the two-day streak of settling relatively unchanged. The prompt month settled at $6.093, down 6.7 cents on the session and less than a cent lower than the previous week’s $6.096 close.

Coming in below historical levels, but still within the range of industry estimates, the Energy Information Administration reported Thursday morning that 69 Bcf was injected into underground natural gas storage for the week ended Sept. 24. November natural gas futures closed at $6.795, down 11.6 cents on the day.

Moderate softening continued to reign in the cash market Wednesday as slow warming trends fail to prompt enough power generation load to turn prices around. A few Northeast citygates were essentially flat with losses of only a penny, while most other points recorded generally small drops ranging from 2-3 cents to a little more than a dime.

Steady buying in the last 30 minutes of trading was not enough to overcome a massive sell-off on the opening bell and the January natural gas futures contract was left with a 22.9 cent decline on its last day as prompt contract at Nymex Monday. At $6.15, January’s final resting place is almost equidistant between its $7.55 spike high from earlier in the month and the December 2003 contract’s $4.86 closing price.

Rescinding gains made shortly after the opening bell, the natural gas futures market was sent lower Thursday morning by traders unimpressed with government estimates suggesting that 134 Bcf was pulled from storage last week. However, after bottoming out at $6.75 shortly before 11 a.m. EST, the January 2004 contract — boosted by supportive weather and cash prices — mounted a sustained rally that resulting in its second-highest-ever settlement price. It closed at $7.122, up 12.9 cents for the session.

Unfazed by storage data showing stocks decreased by 1 Bcf during the week ending Nov. 21, the natural gas futures market shifted lower Wednesday, as a local trader-led rally was crushed by another round of bearish weather forecasts. The January contract stair-stepped lower in two distinct selling surges. When the dust had settled and the orders were counted at Nymex, the prompt month had slipped 12.5 cents to close at $4.925 on its first day in the limelight.

If the controversial price supports for Alaska gas production fail to make it into the broad energy bill being negotiated, “there will be nothing of significance in the bill that addresses the supply-demand needs” of natural gas customers in the United States, said an official for Alaska producer ConocoPhillips Thursday.

Buoyed by crude oil and by falling mercury readings in the Northeast, natural gas futures rebounded sharply Tuesday morning as fund traders added to their long positions. However, the day’s advance was tempered slightly when afternoon as light selling entered the fray and deposited the prompt contract back below the psychologically important $6.00 mark. By virtue of its 12.5-cent advance and $5.977 close, the March contract remains in bulls hands. At 99,244 estimated volume was heavy and served to punctuate the price advance.

Documents furnished by PG&E Gas Transmission-Northwest Corp. (PG&E-GTN) to FERC fail to “conclusively establish” that the pipeline can demand one year of reservation charges as collateral from non-creditworthy shippers to guarantee continued transportation service, according to Denver, CO-based e prime Inc., a subsidiary of Xcel Energy.