Maintained

North Dakota oil and natural gas production maintained its record pace through the end of May, according to the latest statistics from state Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms. Oil and gas production both hit all-time highs again in May.

Chief Oil & Gas LLC, which in 2005 was the second largest natural gas producer in the Barnett Shale, is showing it can do the same in the Marcellus Shale, reporting that output in Pennsylvania has reached the 100 MMcfe/d mark from 42 wells.

Cash prices had continued to put up a brave front through Monday with modest firmness overall, but the bullish facade could not be maintained Tuesday. Instead, losses that were mostly measured in double digits reigned across the board as more prior-day futures softness, a downgrade of prospects for the season’s first named tropical storm entering the Gulf of Mexico and forecasts of small reductions of cooling load in several regions ganged up on the physical market.

While extending a systemwide high-inventory OFO through at least Friday, Pacific Gas and Electric maintained the tolerance on positive daily imbalances at Thursday’s 12% but expanded the OFO status to Stage 3 and raised noncompliance penalties to $5/Dth.

Despite the near-record level of natural gas in underground storage, December natural gas futures maintained Friday’s momentum to push higher on Monday as the contract gained 5.5 cents to close at $6.838. The move was especially peculiar because crude futures — which have been recently aligned with natural gas — saw the December contract drop $3.90 on the day to close at $63.91/bbl.

Colorado State University (CSU) forecasters maintained their earlier forecast, which called for a well above-average hurricane season this year with 15 named storms forming in the Atlantic Basin by Nov. 30. Eight of the storms are likely to become hurricanes and four of those hurricanes are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater, the CSU forecasters said last Tuesday.

Colorado State University (CSU) forecasters maintained their earlier forecast, which called for a well above-average hurricane season this year with 15 named storms forming in the Atlantic Basin by Nov. 30. Eight of the storms are likely to become hurricanes and four of those hurricanes are expected to develop into intense or major hurricanes (Category 3 or greater) with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater, the CSU forecasters said Tuesday.

Columbia Gas said Tuesday that until further notice there is zero nonfirm receipt capacity for gas entering lines BM-39 in Martin County, KY; BM-19 in Lawrence County, KY, and Wayne County, WV; and PM-117 in Martin County, KY, and any pipelines feeding into these lines. This is for the purpose of making capacity available for firm services, Columbia said. See the bulletin board for a list of affected meters.

Tennessee Gas lifted its operational flow order action alert in its market zones (0, L, 1, 2 and 3), but maintained the alert in the market area (zones 4, 5 and 6). Actual daily flow rates cannot exceed 2% or 500 Dth, whichever is greater, of scheduled quantities or else the shipper will pay a 22 cents/Dth penalty.