Keeps

And the heat just keeps on coming, according to the latest forecast released by Andover, MA-based WSI Corp., which calls for a warmer than normal August for the entire U.S., but a cooler than normal Northeast in September and October.

While harsh winter weather had already receded in much of the West and was due to do so to varying extents in the South and Midwest, it was still making itself at home in the Northeast. The result was a continuation of Northeast citygate spikes Tuesday, while the rest of the market either recorded considerably more modest gains or saw declines setting in at quite a few points in the West and Midcontinent.

Responding to generally weak weather-related demand, healthy use of storage and the screen’s pre-New Year’s Eve drop of about a quarter, swing prices continued to decline Monday in the still-nascent new year. The common range of declines between about 20 cents and about 65 cents reflected larger drops than occurred last Thursday in most cases.

If Congress doesn’t move forward with a comprehensive energy bill that includes electric reliability provisions or a stand-alone power reliability bill, FERC and the power industry “are going to have to work together to figure out what we can do to try to prevent a repeat of the blackout in August of 2003,” a top official with FERC said last Wednesday at a meeting sponsored by the Energy Bar Association (EBA).

FERC last Wednesday said that there is no need to modify scores of transmission agreements in order for the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO) to begin reliably operating its energy markets on its present schedule.

Getting a little boost from the $1.53 uptick in crude futures, August natural gas futures steadily climbed throughout Wednesday to settle 7.2 cents up at $5.977. The prompt month registered its second consecutive day higher following Monday’s 28.4-cent collapse, which brought August just below $6.

With a few western exceptions, swing prices Monday continued the downturn that had started in weekend deals. The market continued to be depressed by the lack of major cooling load outside Florida and parts of the West; in addition, Friday’s screen drop of 13.2 cents was extended by an expiration-day decline of 21.2 cents in the July contract.

Moderate softening continued in the swing market Thursday for the most part, but points here and there were flat or eked out tiny gains. Except for some lingering chill in the Upper Plains, Rockies and Western Canada, temperatures were converging toward pleasant levels appropriate for mid-spring in nearly all other regions (cooler in the Southwest and warmer in the Northeast). However, a cold front was due to move into the Midwest by the weekend.

Although two competing pipelines, designed to bring up to 1.7 Bcf/d of gas to Florida from LNG terminals in the Bahamas, already have completed the regulatory process in the United States, El Paso Corp. proved last week that its Seafarer Pipeline project is not out of the picture just yet.