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The May Nymex contract continued to slowly rebound from itsmassive price downturn on Monday by closing Wednesday up another2.0 cents at $2.521. Trading was held to an extremely tight range,as the spot month could only post a high of $2.555. Total volumewas estimated at 255,671 contracts.

While some local gas utilities will continue struggling toinsulate their small customers from high gas prices and pricevolatility, NIPSCO announced yesterday it will begin offeringselect residential customers and all of its non-residential buyersan option of fixing or capping their commodity prices for up to oneyear starting in May. The program was approved last October as partof NIPSCO’s Alternative Regulatory Plan.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) today received approval from theWashington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) tomake natural gas available for the first time to portions ofKittitas County.

The April Nymex contract gained another 6.1 cents to $2.300 onThursday, as the contract continued to move higher following thebreakout from its recent technical trading range. Despite thestrong rally and heavy estimated volume of 72,113 contracts, theupsurge stopped just short of breaking through its next resistancelevel at $2.305.

Minerals Management Service Director Cynthia Quartermanestimated the federal government would lose $500 million/year if aroyalty-in-kind programs were instituted for oil and gas producers.The projected revenue loss plus her claim that MMS already has thelegal authority to collect royalties in kind were reasons cited forthe agencies opposition to legislation recently proposed by Rep.Mac Thornberry (R-TX) that would replace the current gross proceedsroyalty collection program with RIK.

Prices ranged from flat to down a few cents Wednesday, with mostof the softness concentrated in the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent andChicago citygates. Columbia-Appalachia joined those points indeclines of mostly 3-6 cents, but CNG and Northeast citygates weredown only a penny or two. The declines tended to be attributed to”tracking the Nymex,” as a marketer said.