Fresh

Natural gas traffic between Canada and the United States accelerated at a brisk pace last heating season, according to fresh trade data from Washington that confirm records kept by Ottawa’s National Energy Board (NEB).

September natural gas futures suffered a double-digit drubbing Thursday as the release of fresh storage inventory data revealing another large injection of 77 Bcf served to further allay concerns of a supply shortfall.

May natural gas futures pushed 9.1 cents higher Wednesday to close at $7.689 as traders watched May options expire and awaited fresh storage news from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) Thursday morning. The June contract, which will take over prompt-month status in Globex electronic trading Thursday afternoon, closed 7.3 cents higher Wednesday at $7.781.

Following through on Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s pledge last month to take a “fresh look” at the agency’s impaired royalty-collection practices, the department last Wednesday announced it has formed an independent panel to review and offer advice on ways to improve Interior’s mineral revenue collection from federal offshore/onshore and Indian lands. A Democratic congressman quickly denounced Interior’s action, saying he had “no faith” in the ability of the department to police itself.

Following through on Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s pledge last month to take a “fresh look” at the agency’s impaired royalty-collection practices, the department announced Wednesday that it has formed an independent panel to review and offer advice on ways to improve Interior’s mineral revenue collection from federal offshore/onshore and Indian lands. A Democratic congressman quickly denounced Interior’s action, saying he had “no faith” in the ability of the department to police itself.

In the wake of a blistering report by the Interior Department Inspector General last week of ethics violations and amid fresh allegations that top agency officials blocked four auditors from recovering millions of dollars in oil and natural gas royalties from producers, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) Thursday called on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to schedule a hearing to question Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne about the charges and what he is doing to address the ethics problems at the department.

Fresh data from the independent congressional Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) reveal that as much as $700 million a year in subsidies are flowing to oil and natural gas companies as a result of a massive corporate tax cut bill that was enacted in 2004, according to Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA).

Fresh off of news that the company plans to build a significant amount of new coal-fired generation in Texas, the CEO of TXU Corp. last Tuesday told investors that the company also is looking to construct coal-fired power plants outside of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, with the PJM Interconnection region getting a closer look.

Gains of up to about 40 cents at some eastern points Wednesday ran contrary to the general market trend of continued declines. Fresh bursts of colder weather due Thursday in the Northeast, Midwest and to a lesser extent the South, while not expected to be particularly severe, were enough to interrupt the solidity of lower quotes that had marked the launch of the March aftermarket Tuesday.