Impending

Although softening continued at New England locations, most of the market found enough impending increases in heating load to spur higher prices Tuesday. The overall cash bullishness was able to overcome a prior-day drop of 8.7 cents by December futures and expectations that a net build in storage had extended into at least the first week of November.

Hess Corp.’s chief executive last week warned of an impending energy crisis and urged policymakers to formulate a comprehensive energy policy that would put the United States on solid footing.

Hess Corp.’s chief executive on Tuesday warned of an impending energy crisis and urged policymakers to formulate a comprehensive energy policy that would put the United States on solid footing.

As sources had expected, the nearly stationary presence of a production-disrupting tropical depression off the Louisiana coast was outweighed by the impending significant reduction of air conditioning load in much of the market and the extra decline of industrial demand associated with a holiday weekend. The result was falling prices at nearly all points Friday.

“Storm hype” obviously was not a factor in Thursday’s cash market as all but one point fell in response to the return of mild weather — either impending or already accomplished — in nearly all regions and the previous day’s fall of 19.7 cents by December futures.

Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. Inc. (FBR) has trimmed its forecast for U.S. natural gas prices for the next two years to reflect the “impending flood of shale gas.”

Affiliated pipelines Texas Eastern and Algonquin cited impending cold weather and high demand in saying they will restrict nominations creating due-pipe imbalances and resolving due-shipper imbalances starting Sunday until further notice. The restrictions will be enforced “regardless of the shipper’s cumulative imbalance,” the pipes said.

As Wednesday’s swing to mixed pricing that was mostly softer had hinted, the impending return of warmer weather in the East and the depressant effect of four straight losing sessions by December futures combined to bring cash prices down hard at nearly all locations Thursday. Only flat El Paso-San Juan numbers averted a total sweep of softer quotes.

Impending fresh invasions of the northern U.S. by frigid air from Canada, along with forecasts indicating that the current cold spell will last through at least next week, helped push prices higher by mostly moderate amounts at a majority of points Wednesday. A few instances of flat numbers were also in the mix.