Opening

After opening 3 cents above Thursday’s high trade, the newprompt month September moved higher in early trade Friday astechnical buying buoyed the contract near the confluence oftrendline and psychological resistance at $4.00. However, afterfailing to push through that level, traders were content to takeprofits ahead of the weekend. The July contract finished with justa 0.2-cent gain for the session at $3.845.

Protesters won the opening skirmish, but still lost the firstbattle in a developing new war over expanding natural gas exportsbetween Canadian conservationists and energy consumers on theattacking side and the industry on the defense.

Opening near its daily high and closing just off its low, themarket took on the trajectory of a safe pushed out a 10-storybuilding Friday, as traders pressured prices to their lowest levelsince April 12. The June contract was hardest hit late in thesession, when a wave of sell-stops exacerbated the price slide. Theprompt month closed down 8.2 cents at $3.025.

Anadarko Petroleum Corp., one of the producing industry’s heavyhitters, added more pop to its bat on Opening Day yesterday withthe announced purchase of independent producer Union PacificResources (UPR). Anadarko said the purchase will vault the companyinto the top six companies in terms of both North Americanproduction and reserves.

Despite Tuesday’s large opening gap and 11.8-cent collapse, theMarch contract found support in the high $2.40s yesterday andmanaged a small 1.5-cent gain to end the regular trading day at$2.530. It hit bottom at $2.465 and reached a high for the day of$2.545. April was down 0.3 cents to $2.541, and nearly all of theremaining months were unchanged from the day prior.

TransCanada PipeLines won the opening heat in its race to equipitself for the new era of competition in Canadian gastransportation, but much remains to be decided by a regulatory andnegotiating marathon.

After a strong opening at $2.28 failed to entice much in the wayof additional buying, natural gas futures gave back most of thegains achieved during Wednesday’s Access trading session anddrifted lower for much of the yesterday’s session. Although itsmomentum was decidedly to the downside Thursday, the Februarycontract did manage to post a higher high at $2.29 and escape witha modest, 0.8-cent advance to finish at $2.252. Estimated volumewas thin with only 45,585 contracts changing hands.

After a strong opening yesterday, gas futures were hit with awave of selling, pressuring the market down to a $2.19 midday low.From there the February contract limped mostly sideways until alate, short-covering rally trimmed losses into the close. Theprompt month finished at $2.244, down 1.6 cents for the day.

After a lower opening failed to attract much in the way offollow-through selling, the natural gas futures market clawed itsway back to post a modest gain Friday as traders were hit a bevy offundamental and technical factors. The January contract closed up1.9 cents at $2.655 while the rest of the strip closed downslightly.