Ground

The June natural gas futures contract took the EIA’s 85 Bcf injection report as bullish news for about a half-an-hour in Thursday morning action before trading lower for the remainder of the afternoon to settle at $6.324, down 13.1 cents on the day.

Berlin, CT-based Yankee Gas plans to break ground in spring 2004 on what it bills as the largest project ever undertaken by the natural gas utility — an estimated $53 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility.

Berlin, CT-based Yankee Gas plans to break ground in spring 2004 on what it bills as the largest project ever undertaken by the natural gas utility — an estimated $53 million liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility.

They didn’t make up all the ground lost in Friday’s plunge, but prices did see solid across-the-board rebounds Monday. Sources cited the continuing creep eastward in the northern tier of states of cold weather that had been confined to the West last week as a significant factor, but also mentioned delayed influence from a screen surge Friday and the return of industrial load following a weekend.

Following Tuesday’s 24-cent price decline, natural gas futures prices held Wednesday as traders assessed enough dribs and drabs of bullish news to prevent a test of last December’s market low at $4.69. After clawing back from an early push down to the $4.80 low, the August contract inched back to carve out a minuscule, 0.8-cent advance to $4.876. At 72,206, estimated volume was moderate for the session.

After a mid-morning rally failed to attract much additional buying, natural gas futures ground lower Tuesday as traders managed to look past the hurricane bearing down on the Texas coast to focus on an improving supply situation. August futures closed at $5.02, down 8.2 cents for the session and 18 cents off its morning top. At 78,773, estimated volume was healthier than it has been lately, adding credence to the move lower.

Natural gas futures were higher for the fourth-straight session Wednesday as traders continued to eschew the short side of the market in light of the tropical storm lurking in the Caribbean and another potentially bullish storage report scheduled to be released Thursday. The August contract rallied to close at $5.52, up 1.7 cents for the session and nearly a half-dollar more than its $5.08 bottom of a week ago.

East Tennessee Natural Gas has started laying pipe for its 510,000 Dth/d Patriot Extension into North Carolina. The $298 million extension-expansion project will boost East Tennessee’s existing design capacity of 700,000 Dth/d to more than 1.2 Bcf/d. Service is expected to begin in August or September with capacity increases due in November 2003 and in January 2005.

East Tennessee Natural Gas has started laying pipe for its 510,000 Dth/d Patriot Extension into North Carolina. The $298 million extension-expansion project will boost East Tennessee’s existing design capacity of 700,000 Dth/d to more than 1.2 Bcf/d. Service is expected to begin in August or September with capacity increases due in November 2003 and in January 2005.