Injection

Propelled almost entirely by the previous day’s 49-cent futures spike following a modestly bullish storage injection report, the cash market rose at nearly all points Friday. Although it was on the light side, residual heating load in Canada, the northern half of the U.S. and to some extent in the eastern end of the South provided auxiliary price support, and apparently the usual weekend decline of industrial demand had little impact.

Following the one-two bearish punch Thursday of an upward revision in natural gas storage levels and an unexpected 16 Bcf injection for the week ended Nov. 14, December natural gas futures were on the rebound Friday, reaching a high of $6.548 before closing at $6.480, up 16.4 cents from Thursday’s close and 16.8 cents higher than the previous week’s finish.

CIG lifted Tuesday an Operational Warning it had issued in early October due to high load factors and limited storage injection capacity. CIG also noted in early November that the Operational Warning was still in effect (see Daily GPI, Nov. 4).

Southern California Gas did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Saturday.

Based on “the urgency of the situation caused by the nexus between the upcoming storage injection season and the lack of clarity in Commission policy,” Constellation Energy Commodities Group Inc. has submitted an emergency request for expedited action on FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) to remove the price cap on short-term releases of transportation capacity and provide a partial exemption for capacity released under asset management arrangements (AMA).

Based on “the urgency of the situation caused by the nexus between the upcoming storage injection season and the lack of clarity in Commission policy,” Constellation Energy Commodities Group Inc. has submitted an emergency request for expedited action on FERC’s notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) to remove the price cap on short-term releases of transportation capacity and provide a partial exemption for capacity released under asset management arrangements (AMA).

Southern California Gas lost 300 MMcf/d of injection capacity at its Aliso Canyon storage facility due to maintenance that began Tuesday. The work is expected to continue through March 14.

Kinder Morgan Interstate has lifted injection restrictions for all of its storage services (ISS, NNS, FSS and SCS) and for Storage Park & Loan (S-PALS) service that were implemented in late August.

With 10 weeks to go in the traditional storage injection season, the bears are picnicking at the expense of exploration and production (E&P) companies, feasting on the rise in domestic natural gas production, a large storage overhang, continued high operating costs and the current credit market woes.