Notched

Environmentalists notched another victory over older coal-fired generating facilities last Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a lower court decision that would require power plants making modifications to bring their entire facility up to new air pollution standards. The action by the highest court is the latest in a nearly 15-year-long battle by major electric utilities to escape installing expensive pollution control equipment when modifying existing plants.

Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. notched another sale in its ongoing divestiture plan last week, announcing the sale of its Genghis Khan discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico to the owners of the adjacent Shenzi field for $1.35 billion. The transaction continues the Gulf’s hot deal streak and furthers the internationalization of the U.S. oil and gas breadbasket.

Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. notched another sale in its ongoing divestiture plan. The company is selling its Genghis Khan discovery in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to the owners of the adjacent Shenzi field for $1.35 billion.

Trading within a fairly thin range on Tuesday, July natural gas futures notched a high of $7.580 and a low of $7.435 before settling at $7.474, down 19.6 cents for the day. Natural gas futures appeared to be loosely following crude’s action during the session, where the petroleum contract seemed to dip, recover, then dip again.

Adding to gains notched Thursday, the natural gas futures market finished the week on a positive note Friday as continued end-user buying met with pre-weekend commercial and speculative short-covering. And though the 4.5-cent advance and $5.552 close in the September contract was not shabby, it paled in comparison to the gains in this winter’s strip, which advanced 12.9 cents to close for the week at $6.877. At 68,647, volume in the gas pit was relatively light Friday.

Accelerating the pace of losses notched in Thursday’s disappointing (for bulls) trading session, the natural gas futures market tumbled to new two-month lows Friday as light non-commercial selling went nearly unchecked by either local traders or commercial accounts.

Spurred by losses notched in overnight Access trading, the natural gas futures market continued to free-fall Monday as fund traders re-acquired their short holdings just as quickly as they had exited them earlier this month.

Adding to gains notched Tuesday, natural gas bulls again left nothing to chance Wednesday as they convincingly bid up prices on bullish long-range weather forecasts and ahead of potentially price-constructive storage news today. Since plumbing a four-week low at $3.67 Monday, the November contract has rallied 25 cents to trade back within striking distance of the psychologically and technically important $4.00 level. It settled at $3.918 yesterday, up 5.6 cents for the session.

Rescinding gains notched early in the session, natural gas futures plumbed to new week-and-a-half lows yesterday afternoon on the news from the American Gas Association that a meager 45 Bcf was withdrawn last week from underground storage facilities. The January contract settled at $2.616, down 4.1 cents for the session and more than a dime beneath its $2.73 high on the day. The out months sustained a more severe selling punch, led by the February contract which moved to within striking distance of the prompt month by shuffling 6.2 cents lower to close at $2.65.