Industrial

With disappearing heating load and the previous day’s screen plunge exacerbated by the extra reduction of industrial demand associated with a long holiday weekend, cash prices tanked by more than a dollar — more than $2 in quite a few cases — across the board Friday.

Forecasts of moderating weekend weather, a prior-day screen plunge, a bearish storage report and the dip in industrial load that is typical of a weekend ganged up on the cash market Friday and forced prices lower by triple-digit amounts at all points. Despite the big weekend losses, prices were up overall for the week due to the hefty gains that dominated the first four days.

Demand destruction is creeping into the biggest emerging Canadian industrial natural gas consumer, Alberta oilsands operations. The biggest new development, Canadian Natural Resources’ (CNRL) 500,000 bbl/d Horizon Oil Sands Project, includes a C$1.4-billion (US$1.2-billion), long-range commitment to adopt “gasification” technology for making plant fuel from bitumen.

Alberta oilsands projects will continue to contribute to upward pressure on natural gas prices as virtually the only industrial sector left in North America where consumption is still rising, Canada’s National Energy Board predicts.

Trunkline LNG said the Calcasieu Ship Channel and Industrial Canal were cleared for vessel transit to its LNG receiving terminal at Lake Charles, LA effective Monday. Users of the ship channel can obtain current information from the Lake Charles Pilots at (337) 436-0372, Trunkline LNG said.

Amerada Hess Corp. said it has purchased EnLine Energy Solutions’ natural gas marketing business. EnLine supplies gas to more than 200 commercial, industrial, and municipal customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. The transaction closed on Aug. 1.

As expected, generally weak weather-related demand, large day-earlier drops in energy futures and the decline of industrial load over a weekend combined to send prices lower by double digits across the board Friday. Some drops were as small as a little over a dime, but they ranged to just above 40 cents.

The American Public Gas Association, American Gas Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, Industrial Energy Consumers of America and numerous other organizations sent a letter Wednesday to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee urging it to move quickly on comprehensive energy legislation that includes provisions that would open up more domestic areas to natural gas drilling.

FirstEnergy Corp. sold its retail gas marketing business, FirstEnergy Solutions, to Amerada Hess Corp. on Friday. FirstEnergy Solutions supplied gas to 1,900 commercial and industrial customers in selected areas within Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Terms of the deal weren’t released. Akron, OH-based FirstEnergy holds seven electric utility operating companies with 4.4 million customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.