Numbers

Some companies saw substantial growth and others saw their numbers fall, but the total volume of natural gas sold in North America in 1Q2009 remained basically flat, falling less than 0.5 Bcf/d from the same period last year, according to NGI’s 1Q2009 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

Some companies saw substantial growth and others saw their numbers fall, but the total volume of natural gas sold in North America in 1Q2009 remained basically flat, falling less than 0.5 Bcf/d from the same period last year, according to NGI’s 1Q2009 Top North American Gas Marketers Ranking.

Not surprisingly on the day after storage news got even more bearish than before and caused a plunge of 38.3 cents by April futures, cash numbers fell at all points Friday. Except for the Rockies, Western Canada and a few sections of the Midwest, freezing lows were continuing to disappear from the overall forecast. The usual weekend decline of industrial load was a slightly negative factor in Friday’s market.

The latest blast of winter cold in much of the East is proving to be short-lived, and so are the two days of price firmness that it caused. Numbers dropped at nearly all points Thursday as a warming trend was forecast for the Midwest and cold temperatures were due to ease slightly in the Northeast. While colder conditions would continue spreading in the South Friday, they weren’t enough to offset the decline of heating load in more northerly climes.

In the last three years there has been a significant jump in the numbers of customers involved in demand response and advanced metering programs, but barriers still exist and the vast majority of U.S. energy consumers are still untouched by these advances in energy-use technology, according to an annual FERC report. The federal regulatory panel said it was making demand response a priority.

In the last three years there has been a significant jump in the numbers of customers involved in demand response and advanced metering programs, but barriers still exist and the vast majority of U.S. energy consumers are still untouched by these advances in energy-use technology, according to an annual FERC report released Monday. The federal regulatory panel said it was making demand response a priority.

Mixed price movement continued in the cash market Tuesday, but this time it was higher numbers that predominated. Temperatures closer to summer norms are returning Wednesday to the western end of the South and will be rising in sections of New England, although generally New England weather will still be fairly mild. The cash market also was supported by the previous day’s 10.1-cent advance by September futures and by news of potential tropical storm activity.

Cash prices were able to recover Monday all of the ground they had lost Friday and more as numbers moved higher at all but two points. There was cooling load developing in the South and Southwest, still-substantive heating load on both sides of long stretches of the U.S.-Canadian border, support from the 20.4-cent advance by May futures Friday and the return of industrial demand from its typical weekend hiatus.

Royal Dutch Shell plc will not include oil and natural gas reserves estimates in its 2007 annual results Thursday, waiting instead to release the numbers in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 20-F annual report, the company said.