Injection

After rallying nearly 30 cents on Thursday following word of a 78 Bcf storage injection for the week ending July 9, August natural gas futures finished the week on a weaker note Friday as the contract closed the regular session at $4.519, down 6.7 cents from Thursday’s close but 11.7 cents higher than the previous week’s finish.

Rebounding from Thursday’s 21.4-cent freefall following a larger-than-expected storage injection, May natural gas futures on Friday reached a high of $4.099 before closing the regular session at $4.039, up 5.4 cents from Thursday’s finish but 3.1 cents below last week’s close.

Rebounding from Thursday’s 21.4-cent freefall following a larger-than-expected storage injection, May natural gas futures on Friday reached a high of $4.099 before closing the regular session at $4.039, up 5.4 cents from Thursday’s finish but 3.1 cents below last week’s close.

Southern California Gas said Friday the loss of 300 MMcf/d of storage injection capacity due to emergency turbine repairs at its Aliso Canyon facility had ended as expected.

Due to forecasts of mild Southeast weather, Southern Natural Gas cited projections of high storage injection requirements during the weekend in announcing that an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances would be in effect on its system Saturday until further notice. Tiered imbalance penalties will be assessed to shippers exceeding allocated deliveries by 2% or more (those with long imbalances of less than 2% or 200 Dth/d will not be penalized).

Southern California Gas allowed a high-linepack OFO that had been in effect for eight days to lapse Saturday, saying constraints on storage injection capacity had eased.

Citing “historically high storage inventory levels and projected high injection requirements for the upcoming weekend,” Southern Natural Gas said Friday it was implementing an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances Saturday until further notice (although it said in another notice that the OFO was unlikely to continue Monday). Tiered imbalance penalties were set for positive imbalances exceeding 2%, or 200 Dth, whichever was greater.

Citing “unseasonably high inventory levels at Clay Basin [storage facility],” Questar said it will not accept any ISS (interruptible) injection or transfer nominations there effective June 1 until further notice.

Demand weakness has forced domestic natural gas producers to lay down rigs at a quick clip, but inventories still may finish the 2009 injection season with 3.9 Tcf in storage, Barclays Capital energy analysts said last week. Meanwhile, Fitch Ratings is no longer optimistic about a rebound in gas prices this year, and late Thursday the credit ratings agency cut its 2009 base case price deck for gas to $4.25/Mcf (Henry Hub) because of the protracted global economic slump.