Pattern

Falling into a rather well worn pattern, June natural gas futures Thursday expanded the upside of the recent move by a few pennies before crashing back down to earth. The prompt-month contract notched a $11.428 high in the minutes that immediately followed the natural gas storage report’s release before retreating to close at $11.263, down 6.4 cents from Wednesday.

Beginning another transition into the on-again, off-again periods of frigid conditions that have dominated February’s weather pattern, cash prices saw strong double-digit gains at all points Monday. The previous Friday’s 25.5-cent advance by March futures also was supportive, and the return of industrial load from weekend hiatus gave a little extra boost to the physical market.

In an effort to establish targets for energy efficiency — similar to the existing Renewable Portfolio Standard intended to reverse the pattern of increasing energy use in New York — the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) initiated a proceeding to design an electric and natural gas Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EPS).

In an effort to establish targets for energy efficiency — similar to the existing Renewable Portfolio Standard intended to reverse the pattern of increasing energy use in New York — the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) initiated a proceeding to design an electric and natural gas Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (EPS).

June natural gas futures traded in an extremely tight 12-cent range Wednesday, further highlighting the market’s recent directionless pattern. Trading between $7.610 to $7.730, the prompt month ended up closing 8.3 cents higher at $7.720, breaking the week’s two-day string of lower closes.

The cash market appeared to be slipping into a holding pattern Wednesday with close-to-flat prices prevailing at virtually all points. Only a few points, nearly all in the West, saw prices move by a dime or more. Flat quotes were common in a market that was approximately evenly divided among losses of up to about 15 cents and gains that also ran as high as about 15 cents (Questar was an exception with an increase of about 30 cents).

The cash market continued its break from the pattern of mixed pricing that prevailed every day last week. The direction of price movement was uniform at all points again Tuesday, but this time it was down instead of up. Moderating weather trends in the Midwest, to be duplicated to a lesser extent over the rest of the week in the Northeast, combined with the pre-existing scarcity of heating load in the South to ease overall spot gas demand.

Attempting to prove a pattern of deception at Enron Corp., federal prosecutor Sean Berkowitz completed his relentless cross-examination of former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Wednesday. But in four days of direct testimony and three days of cross-examination, Skilling maintained that he either didn’t know, didn’t remember or wasn’t involved in any of the alleged misdeeds at the company.

In a now-familiar pattern, prices rebounded at nearly all points Monday by amounts ranging from about a nickel to half a dollar or so. Although cold weather forecasts weren’t able to keep quotes from falling Friday, enough moderate heating load is lingering early this week that along with the return of industrial demand from its usual weekend slump, sellers found no shortage of ready buyers.