July

After a wild week that saw the natural gas futures market survive heat waves, August’s expiration and a 7 Bcf storage withdrawal in the heart of July, natural gas futures traders gave it a rest on Friday. In its first regular session action as front month, September natural gas briefly sank below $7 before settling at $$7.184, up 6.1 cents on the day and 93.6 cents higher for the week.

No injuries or interruptions of service resulted from a rupture of Tennessee Gas Pipeline in rural Clark County, KY shortly after noon July 22, a spokesman said.

Second-quarter earnings of Houston-based Apache Corp. rose 23% over the year-ago period (see Daily GPI, July 29, 2005) to $722 million, $2.17/diluted share, from $587 million, $1.76/share. Record production, balanced product mix and higher oil prices offset a decline in natural gas prices since the first quarter.

After implementing a Strained Operating Condition notice Wednesday (see Daily GPI, July 27), El Paso canceled it later that day, saying system conditions had improved due to moderating weather that reduced overall takes. “In addition, customer response has sufficiently balanced receipts to takes,” the pipeline said, adding that linepack had returned to “acceptable levels” and withdrawals from the Washington Ranch storage facility were discontinued.

With a “wild card” storage report looming Thursday morning (see Daily GPI, July 26), it appeared that traders were positioning themselves for the most bullish scenario as August natural gas futures tore higher on Wednesday, one day ahead of the contract’s expiration. The prompt month put in a $6.900 high late in the session before closing at $6.887, up 47.8 cents from Tuesday’s close.

Earlier in July as power demand and prices began to peak, Tucson, AZ-based UniSource Energy Services (UES) forewarned its natural gas customers in the northern part of Arizona about the likelihood of higher gas utility bills this winter. Per-therm gas costs could rise to $1.32 in November, drop back and then rise again to about $1.37/th in March of next year, UES announced.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday (July 12) is scheduled to vote out the nomination of Marc Spitzer for a seat on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Just before the July 4 holiday, California’s legislature was in full operational mode, grinding out several key energy measures by Friday, including global warming emissions limits and jump-starting accelerated solar and energy efficiency initiatives. Most of the action remains in the state Senate.

Tennessee said the completion date for installation of a pig launcher and receiver on the 334A-100 Line north of New York City has been delayed until July 3. The work, which requires the suspension of physical flow at the Con Ed White Plains meter and has seen several previous delays, most recently had been expected to wind up Tuesday, the pipeline said.