Finishing

Finishing higher for only the second day out of eight, December natural gas futures on Monday climbed 45.8 cents to settle at $11.873. Despite the sizeable jump, one broker said the downtrend is still healthy, adding that Monday’s price action was just a short-covering rally.

The North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) within the next month and a half intends to complete a written policy that will allow the council to hand over to FERC information related to power reliability violations, the head of NERC told a Senate hearing last week.

After finishing last week on very negative and tenuous footing, natural gas futures extended lower Monday as funds and local traders exerted their influence on a market mostly devoid of commercial players. However, after plumbing a new, four-week low at $3.67 yesterday morning, the November contract struggled back to near unchanged in the afternoon. It settled at $3.74, up 0.1 cents on the day.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is putting the finishing touches on a national transmission grid study that, among other things, recognizes improved regional planning as a tool for removing transmission bottlenecks, Vicky Bailey, assistant secretary of energy for policy and international affairs at the DOE, told a gathering of electric utility executives last Wednesday at a transmission summit in Washington, DC.

Finishing right on schedule, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has completed the acquisition of 100% of the common shares of Canadian-based Gulfstream Resources Canada Ltd., an international oil and gas company whose assets are centered in Qatar and Oman. The acquisition ups Anadarko’s proved reserves by 70 MMboe.

Ending a two-day slide, natural gas futures snapped back to lifeFriday as traders were drawn back to the long side of the market bysupportive technicals and stronger weekend cash prices. In just itssecond day as the prompt contract, May advanced 7.2 cents to finishat $2.945, just a penny off its high for the day and just 6 centsof its all-time high notched last Tuesday.

Putting the finishing touches on a controversial asset sell-offplan, MCN Energy Group Inc. announced last week the sale of itsAppalachian natural gas exploration and production (E&P) andrelated pipeline properties for a total of $180 million.

Putting the finishing touches on a controversial asset sell-offplan, MCN Energy Group Inc. announced last week the sale of itsAppalachian natural gas exploration and production (E&P) andrelated pipeline properties for a total of about $180 million.

Fueled by a late sell-off, natural gas futures continued lowerlast Wednesday and put the finishing touches on a December futurescontract which slipped a whopping $1.06 or one-third of its valuesince becoming the spot contract a month ago. With no fresh news todigest, the market defaulted to the same old negative price outlookformed around above-normal temperatures and plentiful gas supplies.After hitting a black hole of buying below $2.21 shortly after noonWednesday, the December contract free-fell 6.9-cents to expire at$2.12 in abbreviated pre-holiday trading.