Mixed

The late-September incremental market was geographically mixed Wednesday. Eastern points tended to range from flat to down about a dime, while except for similarly softer Permian/Waha quotes, the West was flat to nearly a dime higher.

With bulging storage stocks putting increased pressure on natural gas prices, a Prudential Securities Inc. analyst on Friday reduced or left unchanged her 2001 earnings-per-share (EPS) estimates for more than half of the major energy companies that she routinely tracks.

Prices registered across-the-board upticks that generally ranged from about a nickel to 15 cents Wednesday as cash traders had quite a lot on their plates to digest: the sudden resignation late Tuesday of Jeffrey Skilling as Enron’s president and CEO; the subsequent pounding Wednesday taken by stock prices for Enron and other large energy companies; the formation of Tropical Depression Four in the Atlantic; and the moderate futures strength generated during the morning by news of the tropical activity.

Eastern markets held up relatively strongly for the weekend considering the lower-demand flow period and a continuation of weak weather fundamentals. Most points in the East ranged from flat to just a few pennies down Friday, and a few scattered ones achieved small gains. The West stayed with its earlier trend of mostly larger declines, led by an OFO-related plunge for border-SoCalGas.

Trading inside the range established on Wednesday and Thursday, natural gas futures checked mostly sideways Friday as light short covering ahead of the weekend was met with an almost equal amount of overhead selling. The July contract finished at $3.93, up 1.6 cents on the day, but down 10.3 cents for the week.

The reaction was loud, long and predictable — and in fact most was probably written well in advance of yesterday’s unveiling. While the energy industry — from natural gas interests, to coal to nuclear power — hailed the Bush energy plan for its long-overdue focus on developing the nation’s energy resources and infrastructure, environmentalists bashed it as a bunch of dirty words aimed at derailing the movement to reduce pollution and preserve the environment.

Natural gas futures continued lower Thursday as a gap-lower open and follow-through selling on the heels of Wednesday’s bearish storage report pressured futures prices briefly beneath the $4.20 level. At the closing bell, the prompt June contract was a nickel lower on the day at $4.248.

The reaction was loud, long and predictable — and in fact most was probably written well in advance of yesterday’s unveiling. While the energy industry — from natural gas interests, to coal to nuclear power — hailed the Bush energy plan for its long-overdue focus on developing the nation’s energy resources and infrastructure, environmentalists bashed it as a bunch of dirty words aimed at derailing the movement to reduce pollution and preserve the environment.

There was a divergence of opinion last week within the gasindustry on President Bush’s broken campaign promise to press forrestrictions on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from powergeneration. Several energy officials, some within the same industryassociations, had different positions on the matter.