Lost

With the short time remaining on the legislative calendar before the November elections, even Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell appears to have lost confidence that a deal will emerge in the state legislature to enact a severance tax on the state’s oil and gas production.

With temperatures boiling to over 100 degrees up and down the East Coast and traders tallying just how much gas was lost last week due to Hurricane Alex shut-ins, natural gas futures traders explored the upside coming off the long holiday weekend. Despite running higher during the day, the August contract ended up closing at $4.682, down half a penny from Friday’s finish.

June natural gas futures lost ground in active inventory report-driven trading Thursday as natural gas bulls found themselves swimming upstream against government storage data that showed a greater-than-expected addition to inventories and continuing upheaval in oil and financial markets.

Southern California Gas extended a high-linepack OFO that began Friday through at least Saturday. The company also said it lost 150 MMcf/d of injection capacity Friday at its Aliso Canyon storage facility for an undetermined period due to unscheduled repairs on the K-25 gas generator.

Southern California Gas extended a high-linepack OFO that began Friday through at least Saturday. The company also said it lost 150 MMcf/d of injection capacity Friday at its Aliso Canyon storage facility for an undetermined period due to unscheduled repairs on the K-25 gas generator.

Institutional investors have not lost their taste for commodities, according to Barclays Capital. While this year saw record commodity investment, new heights could be reached in 2010, the firm said last Thursday.

Institutional investors have not lost their taste for commodities, according to Barclays Capital. While this year saw record commodity investment, new heights could be reached in 2010, the firm said Thursday.

An affiliate of a Houston-based natural gas marketer has accused Southern Natural Gas pipeline of violating its tariff and FERC policy — which requires capacity to be awarded to the shipper who values it the most — during a recent open season on its system.

Production growth from shale plays and the return of production that had been lost in last year’s hurricanes have been masking a decline in North American conventional natural gas production, but they may not be able to continue to cover those declines in the short term, according to ARC Financial Corp. chief energy economist Peter Tertzakian.