Nomination

Natural gas buyers for weekend and Monday elected to take a pass and were reluctant to commit to three-day deals in Friday trading.

Gas for Wednesday delivery was content to stay home Tuesday as most points moved just a few pennies from unchanged.

Friday is D-Day for natural gas pipelines to make the switch over to a new transportation nominations schedule designed to help coordinate the natural gas and power markets.

Following the across-the-board drubbing physical natural gas market values took on Thursday for Friday through the weekend delivery, trading on Friday for Monday flow scored healthy gains across the nation except for a few outliers in the volatile Northeast.

Physical natural gas for Tuesday delivery posted stout gains in Monday’s trading as a combination of a firm screen, pipeline constraints and above-normal temperature patterns in the Northeast, and hefty generation forecasts on the West Coast all tugged prices higher.

Physical natural gas gained ground in trading Tuesday for Wednesday delivery. Gains were widespread in the Midcontinent, Midwest and Gulf, with isolated setbacks in the East and West Coast.

In an unusual ad hoc session outside its normal chambers, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Thursday morning voted to advance the nomination of Colette D. Honorable to become a commissioner at FERC.

The North American Energy Standards Board (NAESB) has ratified and will file with FERC a revised timeline for natural gas nomination cycles. And at the same time a splinter group of southwestern utilities has put together an alternative proposal, according to a Commission update issued Thursday on gas-electric coordination.

Consideration of Colette D. Honorable’s nomination to be a commissioner at FERC is reportedly on hold following the unexpected death of her husband last weekend, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mary Landrieu told reporters Wednesday.