Noon

After plummeting to trade at $5.32 just prior to noon (EDT), September natural gas futures failed to find any traction and failed to bounce off the floor for the remainder of the trading session. The prompt month reached a low of $5.305 in afternoon trading before settling at $5.31, down 24.2 cents from Friday’s close.

After dipping into the high $5.20s just before noon EST, the natural gas futures market rebounded Tuesday in concert with a spiking crude oil market. However, natural gas was unable to keep pace with the 3% gain notched by its hydrocarbon brethren and ultimately failed to match its own $5.50 high from Monday.

Questar Corp. shares (STR) rose nearly 2% Wednesday morning to $32.02 at noon after the company raised its earnings guidance for the year and reported a 23% increase in net income to $28.7 million, or 34/cents per diluted share, for third-quarter on much higher realized gas prices.

Citing shipper requests, Questar extended the open season for its Piceance to Kanda/Coleman expansion project to a noon MDT deadline on Sept. 19. It previously had planned to end the season last Friday (see Daily GPI, Aug. 13). Copies of the bid form and project details are available online at http://www.questarpipeline.com under “Marketing, Open Season and Expansion Plans.”

Tengasco Inc. shares were down 11% last Tuesday but rebounded 9% on Wednesday by noon to $1.31 after the company discounted a class action lawsuit brought against it on Monday. Tengasco said the lawsuit was initiated by common stock short-sellers, who profit when share prices decline.

Union Gas Limited is taking bids through noon EDT Thursday (Sept. 5) for up to 3 Bcf of short-term peak storage service at its Dawn Hub in Ontario over the 2002/2003 winter season. The service is available for the Sept. 6, 2002-March 31, 2003 period. Delivery and receipt points will be at Dawn. See the Union bulletin board for details, or call Mark Bering at (519) 358-4010 for more information.

In a continuation of the selling that began around noonWednesday, natural gas futures spiraled lower yesterday as pricesbroke beneath several key technical levels. For the May contract,that meant a sizeable loss on its first day in the limelight as thenewly crowned prompt month sunk 17.9 cents to close at $5.274.Equally impressive was the pull back seen in the out-months, whichconspired to send the summer strip down 17.8 cents to $5.355.

To curb growing linepack, NOVA changed its daily imbalancetolerance range to +2%/-18% at noon Tuesday.

After piercing key resistance at $2.78 shortly before noon(EST), natural gas futures kicked into overdrive yesterday astraders discounted warm weather forecasts and added to their longpositions.