Longer

Citing current and projected operational conditions, ANR told DDS and MBS customers Wednesday they will no longer be limited to their March 2 storage balances (see Daily GPI, March 6). ANR said it will allow interruptible injections and withdrawals subject to daily operational capacity, but will closely monitor daily DDS/MBS activity and balances throughout the injection season. If interruptible storage balances impact the operations of ANR’s storage fields, the pipeline plans to act as necessary, including ordering the withdrawal of all interruptible storage account balances with 45 days’ notice to customers.

Prices were in a steep slide across the board Monday, with heating load continuing to recede and the cash market no longer having prior-trading-day screen support. All points yielded more price ground Monday than they had gained on the previous Friday.

Although it is no longer in the natural gas business, power producer Dynegy Inc.’s 2005 earnings benefited greatly from the midstream enterprise it previously owned. Specifically, proceeds from its midstream asset sale turned what would have been a net income loss to a net gain.

While natural gas futures continue to work lower, the declines are no longer in 50-cent increments. February natural gas chiseled out a new low for the move of $9.130 on Wednesday before settling at $9.238, down 9.8 cents.

Two more ammonia production companies announced last week they would close down for the month of January and possibly longer due to the high price of natural gas. This follows on the earlier closing by Terra Industries of two of its fertilizer plants.

Virtually all points were up strongly Tuesday on prospects of a northern cold snap continuing for a while longer. Most of the gains were in double digits, but quite a few points — primarily in the Northeast — rose by dollar-plus amounts.

Those counting on an LNG bail-out to moderate natural gas prices along about 2007-2008 might have to wait a little longer, according to a report just published by Schroders plc, a global asset management company, whose latest report on North American natural gas markets sees prices remaining at high levels beyond the end of the decade.

Saying a Btu limitation is no longer in effect on the offshore portion of its system, Destin Pipeline began accepting Cycle 3 nominations for Thursday’s gas day from all receipt points. But due to constraints, Destin said it will allocate capacity in accordance with tariff procedures.

Caught between longer-term bearish fundamental market conditions and shorter-term bullish technical factors, the natural gas futures market chopped sideways to higher in relatively light trading activity Tuesday. And while neither side could claim the day as a victory, the market finished on a positive note, with the June contract ekeing out a 3-cent advance to close at $6.476.