Having

Having already pulled the Henry Hub look-alike contract traded on IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE) under its regulatory oversight authority, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Monday issued a Notice of Intent to consider whether 13 other natural gas contracts and 11 power contracts offered by ICE should receive similar treatment.

With most cooling load having eroded in the South and only a smattering of heating demand coming along to replace it, the cash market needed only a gentle nudge from the expiration-day dive of 25.5 cents by October futures Monday to record across the board losses Tuesday. Only one point fell by less than double digits.

August natural gas futures limped higher for a third straight regular session on Tuesday as traders were having a hard time pinpointing a reason for a serious move in either direction. The front-month contract added 1.6 cents to close at $3.705.

Having launched a nonbinding open season in early June, the backers of the proposed Tricor Ten Section Hub LLC underground natural gas storage project in California filed an application with FERC Tuesday, seeking a certificate for their project by February. They seek to operate a high-deliverability, multi-cycle storage facility in Kern County, 10 miles southwest of Bakersfield.

Cash prices recorded double-digit increases across the board Friday, having gotten a strong launch from July futures making their prompt-month debut a day earlier with a 31.9-cent spike. The fact that Friday’s trading was for Monday-only flows, omitting the usual market baggage of weekend industrial load loss, was also a bullish factor.

After having pushed June natural gas futures lower Thursday morning on the expectation of a storage build report of approximately 100 Bcf, traders were forced to backpedal higher after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 95 Bcf was injected into underground inventories for the second consecutive week. Alas, when all was said and done the prompt-month contract ended up closing at $4.292, down 4.1 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

Having dialed back on new project activity in 2007-2008 due to high costs, Royal Dutch Shell plc replaced 97% of production in 2008 on an organic basis while its business has migrated toward being weighted 50-50 natural gas vs. oil. Going forward, Shell executives said the company plans to leverage the global recession in seeking cost advantages while building reserves and infrastructure to take advantage of longer-term growth.

Having dialed back on new project activity in 2007-2008 due to high costs, Royal Dutch Shell plc replaced 97% of production in 2008 on an organic basis while its business has migrated toward being weighted 50-50 natural gas vs. oil. Going forward, Shell executives said the company plans to leverage the global recession in seeking cost advantages while building reserves and infrastructure to take advantage of longer-term growth.

Monday’s price movement saw a reversal of geographic orientation from the previous Friday. On Monday it was the East that was mostly softer, while most western points rallied from Friday’s overall declines. Freezing temperatures were still in the forecast for Tuesday from the Northeast through the Midcontinent/Midwest and Great Plains into the Rockies, but relatively moderate weather is in play across the southern tier of states.