Outages

The cash market overall rose an average 21 cents Monday boosted by a combination of pipeline outages, forecasts for searing heat, and Gulf shut-ins prompted by tropical storm activity. Northeast points shot higher as milder weather enabled pipelines to reinstate earlier restrictions. At the close of futures trading July natural gas gained 6.9 cents to $2.694 and August added 6.6 cents to $2.734. August crude oil shed 55 cents to $79.21/bbl.

Physical gas prices rose about 4 cents overall Monday due to a combination of short-term outages, imbalances and a tendency to postpone purchases until Monday. Eastern points rose in nonuniform fashion, and California locations posted gains as operational issues surfaced at major entry points in the southern portions of the state. At the close of futures trading June had fallen 7.8 cents to $2.431 and July had shed 8.4 cents to $2.505. June crude oil dropped $1.35 to $94.78/bbl.

Both cash and futures advanced Monday as cash traders reacted to a variety of factors ranging from somewhat cooler weather to nuclear outages. Futures advanced primarily on short-covering and revised weather forecasts, but traders are skeptical the gains will last. At the close March had gained 5.1 cents to $2.550 and April had risen 6.1 cents to $2.738. March crude oil fell 93 cents to $96.91/bbl.

Gulf South has made a couple of small changes in the scheduling of meter outages during in-line inspection pigging on Index 287 in the New Orleans area that began Tuesday and will continue through Aug. 25 (see Daily GPI, July 26). See the bulletin board for details.

The New Mexico legislature has passed a bill calling for an investigation of natural gas outages that hit parts of the state in February. Gov. Susana Martinez last Wednesday signed the measure (HB 452), which was unanimously approved by the state Senate March 12. Labeled an emergency investigation under the New Mexico legislative process, the measure creates the Gas Emergency Investigation Task Force composed of designated representatives from state government. The measure spells out the task force parameters and actions, and calls for a report and recommendations to be compiled by Aug. 1. Following energy disruptions caused by a severe freeze in the Southwest which left 28,000 New Mexico Gas Co. customers without service, the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee launched investigations and held hearings (see NGI, Feb 28). The task force is to investigate “how and why” many of the state’s rural natural gas consumers were shutoff, the economic and social impacts from that, and determine recommendations for both state and federal regulators on how to avoid a similar occurrence in the future.

With the Gulf of Mexico production outages from Tropical Storm Ida having already been discounted by the cash market Monday, it was no surprise that the remaining tropical depression was no price-booster Tuesday. However, continuing modest cooling trends in several regions, along with the previous day’s December futures increase of 7.5 cents, were enough to keep most of Tuesday’s losses minimal and result in more gains than a day earlier.

Destin Pipeline said Friday it had completed initial assessment of its offshore facilities and there appeared to be no significant damage. However, due to power outages affecting downstream pipes, Destin said it is unable to accept nominations from offshore receipt points at this time.

After suffering numerous outages at some generation plants in the past, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. enjoyed a 96% availability rate among its electric generation plants and increased its energy trading profits during the second quarter, executives said Friday. Black Hills released greatly improved quarterly financial results on Thursday.

After suffering numerous outages at some generation plants in the past, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. enjoyed a 96% availability rate among its electric generation plants and increased its energy trading profits during the second quarter, executives said Friday. Black Hills released greatly improved quarterly financial results on Thursday.