Feeding

Feeding off Monday’s 18.9-cent decline, January natural gas futures continued to plumb lower price levels on Tuesday. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $4.126 before closing the regular session at $4.180, down 3 cents from Monday’s finish.

Feeding off of the new 12-month low recorded in front-month natural gas futures on Friday, the cash market responded on Monday by falling at a vast majority of points across the nation. While most cash averages declined by less than a dime, a couple of gains in the nickel to dime range were sprinkled across the country, especially in the East.

Feeding off bleak fundamentals, which include the final act of the uneventful 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, November natural gas futures on Friday recorded a new 12-month low, which could open the door to even lower values in the weeks ahead.

Feeding off of Friday’s new lows for the down-leg in natural gas futures, a vast majority of cash market averages followed suit on Monday with most points declining from a few pennies to nearly a dime. Out West the tune was a little different as most points gained at least a nickel as the region faced some of the warmest temperatures it has seen all summer.

An explosion and fire shut down the DCP Midstream East Texas gas processing plant north of Carthage, TX, at about 10:15 a.m. CST Wednesday. All pipelines feeding the plant have been blocked and all employees were evacuated and accounted for with no injuries, DCP said.

Feeding off of the current arctic chill and prior-day support from near-month natural gas futures, natural gas cash point price averages continued their ascent on Tuesday, albeit in smaller increments than seen on Monday.

Feeding on recent futures strength and slight cooling trends in northern market areas, prices ranged from flat to about 40 cents higher at a large majority of points Wednesday. Texas Eastern-Kosciusko in the Gulf Coast and Transco Zone 6-New York City were the only contrarian points to see modest losses of up to a nickel.

Due to a leak on Coronado Pipeline, Dominion ceased deliveries to Columbia Gas at Cassity Mountain Wednesday. Dominion said it hopes to resume deliveries by June 30. All producers feeding directly into Coronado must shut in, Dominion said, and all producer compression in bubbles 4202, 4203 and 4205 on its system must be shut in until further notice. However, pool operators should not reduce their nominations during this outage, it added.

Feeding on the midweek renewal or continuance of cold weather in several market areas, prices kept rising Wednesday at nearly all points. A few Northeast citygates that were flat to a little over 15 cents lower were the only deviations from overall upticks ranging from about a nickel to 45 cents.