Lifts

Three years after Michigan Gov. John Engler called a temporary moratorium on the practice of vertically drilling from shore to reach oil and gas deposits beneath the Great Lakes, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission has given its “overwhelming support” for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to approve procedures to resume leasing oil and gas property there. Since the 1970s, 13 oil and gas wells had been dug in the lakes, and seven are still in operation.

Three years after Michigan Gov. John Engler called a temporary moratorium on the practice of vertically drilling from shore to reach oil and gas deposits beneath the Great Lakes, the Michigan Natural Resources Commission has given its “overwhelming support” for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to approve procedures to resume leasing oil and gas property there. Since the 1970s, 13 oil and gas wells had been dug in the lakes, and seven are still in operation.

For the second session in a row, natural gas futures were lifted from early morning lows Tuesday as bargain buying more than offset short selling. But just like Friday, the session-long rally yesterday was not enough to recoup losses sustained on the open, leaving the market with yet another in a string of down-days. The October contract closed at $2.359, off 2.1 cents for the session, but more than a dime above its $2.255 low.

Building on modest short-covering related advances achieved Friday, natural gas futures plowed higher yesterday as traders returned to the office to find that meteorologists had not backed away from their forecasts calling for hot temperatures across an extended area of the country over the next 10 days. With that, the September contract took over as the prompt month at Nymex with a neat, 15.9-cent gain to close at $3.353.

Stemming a string of expiration-day losses at six, natural gas futures eked out a slim gain Friday as traders covered shorts ahead of the weekend and in anticipation of hot weather forecast for this week. The August contract went off the board without much fanfare, up 3.9 cents for the session and 21.2 cents for the week, but down 11.9 cents since it became the prompt contract back on June 27. Estimated volume was modest for an expiration day, with just 92,001 contracts changing hands.

Buoyed by strong commercial buying, natural gas futures shuffled higher yesterday after overcoming an extremely negative first hour of trading in which prices broke beneath Tuesday’s low at $3.79. The July contract closed at $3.914, down 6.7 cents for the session, but more than 13 cents above its low for the session.

After gapping lower at the open, natural gas futures turned higher Monday as non-commercial accounts covered shorts initiated in last week’s three-day, 64-cent price erosion. At the closing bell the May contract was 7.8 cents stronger for the session at $5.103.

Propelled by forecasts calling for a warmer-than-normal summerand following on the heels of Thursday’s technical rebound, naturalgas futures finished the week on a positive note Friday, ascommercial and speculative traders covered shorts ahead of theweekend. After gapping higher at the open, the April contracttraded quietly for much of the session Friday, finishing 10.8 centsstronger at $5.035.

Buoyed by technical bullishness, combined with strong buyinginterest in the summer months, natural gas futures moved higherWednesday as buyers focused their buying not only on the promptmonth but also on the bargain-priced summer strip. The Marchcontract finished at $6.235, its 47.1-cent gain narrowly surpassingthe 37.5 advance achieved by the April-October strip.