Hits

The physical market slipped another 2 cents on average Thursday with Northeast points taking the larger hits. In Southern California forecasts of summer-like weather on top of planned maintenance were enough to skew traditional price differentials, and price declines were minimized.

The cash market on average dropped a dime Tuesday with Northeast points and the Rocky Mountains taking the biggest hits. Volatile weather prompted New England losses, but the Great Lakes and Texas points were weak as well. At the close of futures trading April had fallen 1.8 cents to settle at $2.208 after having ventured as low as $2.176. May lost 2.5 cents to $2.294. May crude oil rose 30 cents to $107.33/bbl.

The hits just keep on coming for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as two more of the country’s largest utilities — Exelon Corp. and PNM Resources — announced plans to drop their memberships over the chamber’s opposition to federal climate change legislation. In an effort to prevent more defections by its membership, the U.S. Chamber last week defended and clarified its position on House climate change legislation (HR 2454).

The hits just keep on coming for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as two more of the country’s largest utilities — Exelon Corp. and PNM Resources — have announced over the last few days that they are also dropping their memberships over the chamber’s opposition to federal climate change legislation.

Northeast citygates spiked by multi-dollar amounts Friday, greatly outpacing strong price increases at all points except Sumas. Transco Zone 6-New York City led the pack with a peak quote of $30 and an average of more than $16 as a massive cold front moved into the East. It is scheduled to stick around for a while.

While no one is putting a time estimate on it, the Australian resources giant BHP Billiton faces some detailed data requests from federal and state officials trying to put together a final draft environmental assessment of Billiton’s proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal offshore Oxnard, CA. The government agencies stopped the regulatory clock on the Cabrillo Offshore LNG project during the first week of the New Year.

Although the proponents are downplaying it, U.S. Coast Guard and California officials last week stopped the regulatory clock on Australian resource giant BHP Billiton’s proposed Cabrillo offshore liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal along the Southern California coast. Basic operational, public safety and shipping information on the $550 million, 800 MMcf/d project was requested before the environmental review process can be resumed.

With some of the new-found air conditioning load that had helped support prices at midweek starting to fade again and chilly weather in the Rockies and north-central U.S. moderating from the other direction, cash quotes ranged from flat to down a little more than a dime at nearly all points Friday. The slump in industrial demand typically associated with a weekend also contributed to the generally mild bullishness.

As anticipated, the combination of generally mild weather forecasts, lower load over a weekend and the previous day’s weakness in energy futures caused prices to range from flat to less than a dime lower at a majority of points Friday. However, decreases of more than a dime were clustered in the West, where a heat wave earlier in the week continued to abate.