Matter

As winter approaches it may be only a matter of time before the gas market bears run out of fundamentals pointing in their favor, but right now offshore gas production shut-ins are falling steadily, Texas production is on the rise, and the warm weather and downward price pressure continues.

With an earlier federal appeals court decision authorizing its review of the matter, the California Coastal Commission Thursday voted unanimously to oppose federal efforts to extend three dozen oil/natural gas leases off the state’s central coast from Oxnard north to San Luis Obispo.

Calling high natural gas prices in California “a matter of serious concern,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering an initiative that would require gas sellers and transporters serving the market to submit information on volumes and prices on a regular basis to ascertain if corrective action is warranted.

Sources figured it was only a matter of time before this week’swinter storm-related price hikes started to fade, and the time wasThursday. Softening was only slight at most points, however, andseveral registered as flat. The biggest drops of more than a nickeltended to occur in the markets that had seen the biggest increasesearlier in the week, such as Northeast citygates and NorthernNatural-demarc.