Looms

After plunging in Tuesday’s regular session and then again in overnight Access trade to a $6.425 bottom, November natural gas futures on Wednesday reversed course eventually settling up 21.5 cents at $6.851. The up-move corresponded with a similar rebound in crude oil futures, which fell $1.13 on Tuesday and then rallied Wednesday to gain exactly $1.13 back, settling at $53.64.

After trading lower for most of the day, October natural gas futures — in its first day as the front month — climbed higher in the afternoon to close at $5.234, up 4.5 cents from Friday’s close.

With prospects of hotter weather in several regions before the workweek begins Tuesday, the market Friday was stronger than one might have expected for a long holiday weekend. Most points were within 2-3 cents up or down, but some locations jumped nearly a dime while others fell as much as 20 cents.

When industrial electricity demand rebounds, along with continued growth in residential and commercial sectors, a looming imbalance between growing demand and depressed development of new generating plants could further stimulate the wholesale power market later this year or next, according to San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp.’s CEO Peter Cartwright, speaking to financial analysts Thursday on an earnings announcement conference call.

The cash market remained in mild softening mode for the most part Thursday. Nearly all points ranged from barely a couple of pennies higher to down about a nickel, with small declines predominating. Transco Zone 6-NYC remained the price leader, but it recorded Thursday’s biggest drop of about 30 cents as traders anticipated a weekend cooldown. California also tended to see larger downticks than other markets.

As the balance of power shifted in the Senate last week from Republicans to Democrats, members from both sides of the aisle offered up plenty of hints that the contentious issue of reining in California’s runaway wholesale energy prices will be in play over the next couple of weeks. Democrats said they may take action on legislation that would direct FERC to set cost-based rates to ensure just and reasonable wholesale energy prices in the state, while Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK), the outgoing Senate Energy and Natural Resources chairman, indicated flexibility on the subject, but not if such open-mindedness means sacrificing additional generation in California.

As the price and availability of electricity looms ever larger as a topic of national debate, public power is getting a closer look from industrial and commercial power users and that growing interest in public power is occurring not just in places where you would expect it, like California, but across all regions of the country. So says Carmine Grastataro, senior vice president at RKS Research & Consulting, who sat down with NGI for a brief interview after appearing before a panel at NGI’s GasMart/Power 2001 conference in Tampa, FL, last Thursday.

As the price and availability of electricity looms ever larger as a topic of national debate, public power is getting a closer look from industrial and commercial power users and that growing interest in public power is occurring not just in places where you would expect it, like California, but across all regions of the country. So says Carmine Grastataro, senior vice president at RKS Research & Consulting, who sat down with NGI for a brief interview after appearing before a panel at NGI’s GasMart/Power 2001 conference in Tampa, FL, yesterday.

For the second session in a row, natural gas prices gapped lower at the opening bell Tuesday, as mounting apprehension over today’s storage report convinced traders to lighten their long exposures a little more. But in stark contrast to Monday when prices continued lower throughout the session, gas prices rebounded slightly in the afternoon, filling in the earlier chart gap. The June contract closed at $4.641, down 5.4 cents for the day.