Gained

Giving back almost everything gained on Monday, June natural gas futures on Tuesday traded between $6.31 and $6.47 before settling 5.8 cents lower on the day at $6.349. The settle lower was significant in the fact that trading on Tuesday saw somewhat of a divergence between natural gas futures and petroleum futures.

Falcon Natural Gas Corp. (FNGC) shares gained a penny Thursday to end the day at $1.25 after a geological consulting firm concluded that its gas prospect in South Texas “will most likely be the next giant field discovered in the United States.” However, the company has not even done any exploration on field and provided few details to back up that statement.

Giving back almost all of the 18.7 cents it had gained on Wednesday, the May futures contract Thursday afternoon retreated 16.8 cents to close at $5.765. The decline ended a hectic day that saw the prompt month challenge the $6 mark, notching a high of $5.99. However, it appeared overhead selling prevented the market from breaking above the psychological $6 level, sending prices lower.

Canadian energy income funds, which have gained favor with investors with successful exploitation of oil and gas properties in mature basins — many in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin — received an overall low rating in a new report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P) last week.

Canadian energy income funds, which have gained favor with investors with successful exploitation of oil and gas properties in mature basins — many in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin — received an overall low rating in a new report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service (S&P) this week.

Duke Energy Corp. shares were flat Thursday and even gained ground on Friday despite news that the company missed third quarter earnings estimates and probably will miss earnings targets for the year.

A 2-3% decline in North American natural gas production may be forcing industrial and utility consumers to reduce gas consumption this year, according to a report by Lehman Brothers.

Sure to be a welcome boost to its third quarter results, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. gained a $48.2 million reward from the California Public Utilities Commission Thursday for the success of it multi-billion-dollar annual gas-buying program over a two-year period, 2000-2002.

Magnum Hunter Resources Inc. saw its production up 30% while Chesapeake Energy gained 35% on the production side for the first quarter, with both of the gas-heavy independents growing reserves despite some industry forecasts to the contrary.