Failing

America’s current recession is the worst since the 1930s and “the most synchronized” with failing markets worldwide, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) David Wyss, chief economist, told reporters Monday. Unfortunately for natural gas producers, it also coincides with the blossoming of the nation’s unconventional gas resource base.

With the Wall Street bailout bill failing at the House of Representatives level at midday Monday, worries over a potential repeat of the Great Depression translated into energy demand reduction signals for many traders as energy futures crashed on the day, led by a 10% drop in near-month crude futures.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. After failing to sell its natural gas utilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Pittsburgh-based Equitable Resources, Dominion Resources last Wednesday announced plans to sell its Dominion Peoples and Dominion Hope gas distribution companies to San Francisco-based Babcock & Brown Infrastructure Fund North America for $910 million under an agreement expected to close in 2009.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. After failing to sell its natural gas utilities in Pennsylvania and West Virginia to Pittsburgh-based Equitable Resources, Dominion Resources Wednesday announced plans to sells its Dominion Peoples and Dominion Hope gas distribution companies to a San Francisco-based infrastructure investment fund for $910 million under an agreement expected to close in 2009.

After breaking above $12 on three separate occasions in recent trading but failing to hold on for the all-important $12-plus close, July natural gas futures on Tuesday completed the task, which could open the door for further advances. The prompt-month contract closed Tuesday’s regular session at $12.221, up 25.2 cents from Monday’s close.

After failing to break through psychological support at $7 over the previous three sessions, natural gas futures on Thursday decided to check out the upside for a change as the January contract reached a high of $7.425 before closing out the day at $7.330, up 14.5 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

Proving that resistance up at $7.500 is still very much intact, November natural gas futures on Friday put in a significant retreat. After breaching but failing to settle above $7.500 during the three previous regular trading sessions, the prompt-month contract Friday put in a $7.035 low before finishing the week at $7.041, down 33.3 cents from Thursday but 6.7 cents higher than the previous week’s close.

After failing to get pre-approval to build the $1.8 billion, 950 MW Red Rock coal-fired power generation plant in northern Oklahoma last week, the project’s backers, OG&E Electric Services (OG&E), Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, set about developing “less attractive” options to meet the state’s growing power needs.

The Department of Energy (DOE) gets a failing grade when it comes to meeting its statutory obligation to issue rules on minimum energy efficiency standards for consumer products and industrial equipment, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The poor performance could cost the nation billions of dollars in lost savings, it said.