Jumped

April natural gas futures threw caution to the wind and jumped higher in active trading Thursday, building on Wednesday’s formidable rally. April futures Thursday rose 16 cents to $7.320, and the May contract added 17 cents to $7.435. May crude oil futures vaulted $2.08 to $61.69/bbl.

Forecast costs of Canada’s arctic natural gas pipeline project have jumped 116% and the beleaguered scheme’s sponsors have pushed the target date for starting deliveries back at least three years.

Forecast costs of Canada’s arctic natural gas pipeline project have jumped 116% and the beleaguered scheme’s sponsors have pushed the target date for starting deliveries back at least three years.

Despite continued gas and electric utility earnings decreases, PNM Resources Thursday reported unaudited third-quarter consolidated earnings that jumped up 39.1% compared to the same period in 2005, riding improved electric generation plant results. Net ongoing quarterly earnings were $44.4 million, or 63 cents/diluted share, compared to $31.9 million, or 46 cents/diluted share in the third quarter last year.

ConocoPhillips second quarter profit jumped 65% over the year-ago period, according to figures announced by the company Wednesday.

Cash prices jumped nationwide Monday with gains of 10-45 cents in response to slightly stronger gas futures prices (August was up 8.5 cents), 80-90-degree heat in many major markets, and expectations of higher cooling degree days (CDD) this week. The National Weather Service is forecasting that CDDs will be about 17% above average for the week.

Houston Exploration (THX) shares jumped 6% Monday to $57.97 after hedge fund JANA Partners LLC, which has been critical of THX management and recently demanded that the company open its books, offered to buy Houston Exploration for $62 per share, or about $1.8 billion. The company advised shareholders to take no action on the offer until its board has had time to review it.

Natural gas futures jumped higher Wednesday afternoon in sympathy with a similar rise in the petroleum complex, which was sparked by an escalation of turmoil in Nigeria and U.S. refinery outages. After putting in a low of $6.560 in morning trade, June natural gas took off higher in the afternoon to record a high of $6.920 before closing at $6.900, up 31.9 cents on the day.

Houston-based El Paso Corp.’s share price jumped on Friday with the news that its quarterly net income tripled to $356 million (49 cents/share) from $106 million (17 cents) for the same period a year ago. For the remainder of 2006, “the only real negative,” said CEO Doug Foshee, is the recovery cost from last year’s twin hurricanes, which will be about $160 million more than initially forecast.