Outlook

Bolstered by a futures gain of slightly more than a quarter but not much else other than expectations of more robust fundamentals, cash prices rebounded across the board Monday. Every point was up around 20 cents or more, with western increases tending to be much larger and hitting triple digits in California. Rockies numbers were on the high side of $2 again after having dipped below that level for the weekend.

As work moved forward Tuesday on two new power sources to come on later this summer, the outlook in the immediate two months darkened with no apparent comprehensive solutions emerging from the state legislature.

Natural gas is the “fastest growing primary energy source” according to a new report published in the International Energy Outlook 2001 (IEO), put together by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), with projections that its use will “nearly double” by 2020, providing a “relatively clean fuel for efficient new gas turbine power plants.”

Natural gas is the “fastest growing primary energy source”according to a new report published in the International EnergyOutlook 2001 (IEO), put together by the Energy InformationAdministration (EIA), with projections that its use will “nearlydouble” by 2020, providing a “relatively clean fuel for efficientnew gas turbine power plants.”

Spurred by a negative short-term technical outlook and coming onthe heels of bearish storage data, natural gas futures retracedlower Wednesday as traders took back gains notched during Tuesday’sprice rally. At the closing bell, April was off 24.6 cents tofinish at $5.041, 2.2 cents below Monday’s close.

After flirting with key support at $5.00 throughout much of thesession, natural gas futures broke lower late yesterday after aprice-constructive storage withdrawal report failed to attract therequisite buying activity. The prompt April contract finished 9.5cents lower at $4.911. However, the real story was the out-months,many of which suffered double-digit setbacks. The 12-month stripclosed 10.3 cents lower at $5.091.

Even with stepped up state efforts for developing peakingplants, conservation and new power contracts, the key wild card forwhether California survives this summer’s expected supplyshortfalls is fickle hydroelectric power that is tied to anunpredictable, complex set of weather and environmental factors.With the end nearing for the West’s typical rainy season, stateofficials are newly optimistic about California’s hydro resourcesbeing at normal levels this summer, but in the Pacific Northwestthe prospects continued to be dour Monday as Seattle basked insunny, 60-degree weather.

The Canadian natural gas community shows signs of curing itsexcess-capacity headache the easy way — by finding enoughsupplies with a few major wells to fill up the expanded pipelinegrid.

The Canadian natural gas community shows signs of curing itsexcess-capacity headache the easy way — by finding enoughsupplies with a few major wells to fill up the expanded pipelinegrid.