Much

After much nudging from the courts, state regulators andindustry, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last weekconceded defeat in its battle to justify jurisdiction over a smalllateral in Colorado.

Flat pricing dominated much of the swing market Monday, butquotes ranged to about a nickel higher in the Midcontinent/Midwestand Southwest/California regions. Colder Midwest weather and a bitof chill on the West Coast built up some extra demand in thosemarkets, traders said.

The cash market, not having much in the way of new influencesother than a large drop in crude oil futures, got quieter Tuesdayin both activity level and price movement. Few points ranged anyfurther than 2-3 cents up or down from flat.

Feeding off Wednesday’s strong close, natural gas futures spikedhigher yesterday morning, but ultimately finished lower in anextremely quiet session. After notching a new life of contract highat $2.90 shortly before noon (EST), April was hit with light profittaking which demoted the contract to $2.851, a 1.5-cent loss forthe session.

Much like the beginning of February, the March aftermarket gotoff to a strong start Tuesday with swing numbers for March 1 onlytrading up from apparent index levels. Unlike last month,first-of-March prices also were generally at least a nickel or moreabove end-of-February levels.

While much is made of gas demand growth fueled by gas-firedpower generation, a study sponsored by the American Gas Foundationsuggests advancing technologies for gas-powered distributedgeneration — namely fuel cells — and gas-powered vehicles willspearhead increased demand.

Despite warming temperatures across much of the nation andforecasts calling for more of the same, natural gas futuresrebounded yesterday, as traders covered shorts amid heavilyoversold conditions and ahead of potentially “very bullish” storagedata to be released today.

Despite moderating temperatures pervading much of the countryyesterday, gas futures were able to inch higher and take back asmall portion of recent losses as traders positioned themselvesahead of the release of fresh weather and storage news. March andApril contracts closed up 4.5 cents a piece at $2.54 and $2.507,respectively, while the 12-month strip grew 3.3 cents to $2.614.

Traders finally came to view the cash market Thursday much aspolice would view a vagrant: they’re suspicious of somethingwithout visible means of support. The result was predictable asprices fell anywhere from 2-3 cents at a few Gulf Coast points to15 cents or more in the Rockies/Pacific Northwest.