July

July natural gas is expected to open a penny higher Friday morning at $4.77 as traders see a continuing storage deficit and no reason to not keep working this market from the long side. Overnight oil markets gained.

July natural gas is expected to open a penny lower Wednesday morning at $4.52 as traders see the bullish case losing momentum and technical signals deteriorate. Overnight oil markets firmed.

July natural gas is expected to open 3 cents lower Tuesday morning at $4.62 as longer-dated weather outlooks call for a cool midsection of the country. Overnight oil markets rose.

July natural gas is expected to open 3 cents higher Monday morning at $4.57 as traders focus on near-term warming and discount longer-term forecasts of seasonal weather. Overnight oil markets were mixed.

July natural gas is set to open a penny lower Friday morning at $4.55 as traders sense an inability to take out Thursday’s highs and a weak near-term technical environment. Overnight oil markets weakened.

Crude oil prices, permits to drill and industry employment all surged in July to boost the Texas Petro Index (TPI) by 3.5 points — the largest month-to-month increase in 18 months — to a record 287.7. The previous record was set in 2008.

A cooler-than-normal July for much of the United States led to decreased levels of demand for natural gas and coal to fuel power plants in a trend that is expected to continue for the rest of the summer, according to data collected by Genscape Inc.

A heatwave in the Northeast in the middle of July led to regional wholesale gas and power price spikes, as well as near-record gas consumption by Northeast power generators. However, natural gas spot prices averaged $3.62/MMBtu at the Henry Hub during the month, marking a 21-cent decline from June, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has launched an open season through July 31 for firm natural gas transportation capacity on the Connecticut Expansion Project, which would deliver gas from its existing interconnect with Iroquois Gas Transmission in Wright, NY, to Zone 6 delivery points on Tennessee’s 200 and 300 Lines in Connecticut. The project, which would require upgrades and modifications to the existing pipeline system in New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, is slated for service by November 2016. Available capacity would be about 72,100 Dth/d. The pipeline has entered into binding precedent agreements with three anchor shippers. Inexpensive shale gas has recently caught the attention of the Constitution State. In June Connecticut gas distribution utilities Yankee Gas, Connecticut Natural Gas and Southern Connecticut Gas, filed a joint gas expansion plan with the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority and the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (see NGI, June 24). The plan outlines how the utilities would meet expansion goals proposed in the Gov. Dannel Malloy’s comprehensive energy strategy and the the recently enacted HB 6360 (see NGI, March 18). The utilities plan a “structured approach” to add 280,000 new gas heating customers over the next 10 years.