Filter

Northwest has scheduled installation of a filter/separator at its interconnect with Questar’s Clay Basin Storage Facility for April 27-28. Physical injections and withdrawals from or to Northwest will not be possible for those gas days, Questar said.

After rallying to new 15-month highs Monday on renewed hurricane-hype, natural gas futures reversed lower Tuesday on reports from the National Hurricane Center that Isidore will only be able to reach category 1 hurricane status when it slams into the central Gulf Coast late Wednesday or Thursday. That selling was enough to pressure the October contract down to a new one-week low at $3.71. The prompt month closed a few pennies above that level at $3.742, down 23.6 cents for the session.

It was only fitting yesterday that the futures market groundlower amid lack of strong fundamentals. After all, Monday was theconclusion of just the second July in the last 100 years in whichNew York City did not reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Even WashingtonD.C., which is known for its mostly intolerable summer heat andhumidity was limited to just one day of 90-plus mercury during themonth.

For bull traders yesterday’s natural gas futures session was acase of “no news is bad news” as prices chopped lower in a raresub-50,000 volume session. As usually is the case the promptmonth-September-took the biggest hit, slipping 4.5 cents to finishat an even $2.70.