Impressive

Even with a fairly impressive amount of heating load remaining in play on the first official day of spring, the cash market was mostly softer as mixed pricing extended into a fourth straight trading day Monday.

Buoyed by a supportive short-term weather outlook and another impressive advance in the nearby crude oil market, natural gas futures surged Monday on a combination of speculative short-covering and commercial trader buying.

In a variation of the springtime weather idiom, it was the April futures contract that came in like a lion this year. Following March’s lamb-like behavior as prompt contract, trading roared back to life Thursday and Friday as buyers bid up April futures on the bullish combination of storage and technicals.

Following an impressive eight-day, 60-cent rally, natural gas prices dipped Tuesday as traders grappled with the first bearish weather forecast in more than a month. The September contract closed at $3.166, down 10.1 cents on the day and just 0.6 cents above its low for the session. Estimated volume was heavy, with 109,501 contracts changing hands.

Despite an impressive opening trade, natural gas futures dropped lower Thursday morning in knee-jerk reaction to data showing a healthy 60 Bcf was injected into underground storage facilities last week. At 11:10 a.m. EDT, the September contract was 3.9 cents lower at $2.915, but as it turns out, that was only the beginning. With many traders taking an extended lunch break following an especially trying bidweek, a lone speculative fund trader was able to push prices lower in a second wave of selling. The September contract finished at $2.842, down 11.2 cents for the session.

In speeches marked with impressive statistics from Rocky Mountain producers and a handful of protesters objecting to one of Tuesday’s luncheon speakers — Interior Secretary Gale Norton — the 13th Annual Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference took the high road last week, with speakers touting social and environmental responsibilities as the keys to sustainable shareholder profit in the future.

On a day marked with impressive statistics from Rocky Mountain producers and a handful of protesters objecting to one of the luncheon speakers — Interior Secretary Gale Norton — the opening session of the 13th Annual Rocky Mountain Natural Gas Strategy Conference took the high road Tuesday, with speakers touting social and environmental responsibilities as the keys to sustainable shareholder profit in the future.

Houston-based energy marketer Dynegy Inc. is joining an impressive list of companies poised to build U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, announcing Thursday it will construct a plant at its existing liquefied petroleum gas terminal site in Hackberry, LA. Because the Gulf Coast site is already developed, the facility could be operational two to three years sooner than a greenfield project, with the first phase of commercial operation set for the end of 2003.

Houston-based energy marketer Dynegy Inc. is joining an impressive list of companies poised to build U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, announcing Thursday it will construct a plant at its existing liquefied petroleum gas terminal site in Hackberry, LA. Because the Gulf Coast site is already developed, the facility could be operational two to three years sooner than a greenfield project, with the first phase of commercial operation set for the end of 2003.