Healthy

While some cash market regions Tuesday exhibited a healthy balance of both gains and declines, the Gulf Coast, Texas and the West Coast displayed mostly losses. Some noted that the recent bouts of mixed pricing going on are likely a result of producers and end users jockeying for position ahead of the summer heat and hurricane season, which is often a time of turbulent price swings.

The healthy year-over-year natural gas storage surplus could be slimmed down rapidly this winter — putting upward pressure on natural gas prices — if the 2007 Farmers’ Almanac weather forecast holds up. “Shivery is not dead,” editor Peter Geiger said, alluding to the winter weather forecast in the latest edition of the 188-year-old publication.

As Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski prepares to pass along to the next governor the results of two years of work on a gas pipeline contract with major producers BP, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, at least two of the three candidates, Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Tony Knowles, indicated they will start the process with an open competition among multiple pipeline project proposals. The third candidate, Independent Andrew Halcro, favors using the Murkowski negotiated deal as a base but with significant modifications.

The healthy year-over-year natural gas storage surplus could be slimmed down rapidly this winter — putting upward pressure on natural gas prices — if the 2007 Farmers’ Almanac weather forecast holds up. “Shivery is not dead,” editor Peter Geiger said, alluding to the winter weather forecast in the latest edition of the 188-year-old publication.

Larger upstream producers in Canada benefited from strong prices and healthy production levels in 1Q2005, which in turn should help the country’s energy industry meet its natural gas and oil output targets this year, according to a report by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).

Responding to generally weak weather-related demand, healthy use of storage and the screen’s pre-New Year’s Eve drop of about a quarter, swing prices continued to decline Monday in the still-nascent new year. The common range of declines between about 20 cents and about 65 cents reflected larger drops than occurred last Thursday in most cases.

A new National Energy Board (NEB) report found a “very close linkage and consistency” in gas prices between domestic markets in the Canadian Maritimes provinces and export markets in the United States.

A new National Energy Board (NEB) report found a “very close linkage and consistency” in gas prices between domestic markets in the Canadian Maritimes provinces and export markets in the United States.

Reacting to a string of super-healthy storage refills and forecasts of a cool summer in the eastern and midwestern population centers, July indexes dropped between 25 and nearly 70 cents/MMBtu from the prices recorded by NGI in the June bidweek. The Henry Hub came in at $5.29 in the monthly numbers released last Tuesday, or 67 cents under the June quote of $5.96.