Patterns

Recent spending patterns by North American natural gas producers indicate support for a New York Mercantile Exchange price of around $7.50/Mcf to sustain development, especially in some of the more costly shale plays, according to an energy analyst with John S. Herold.

Recent spending patterns by North American natural gas producers indicate support for a New York Mercantile Exchange price of around $7.50/Mcf to sustain development, especially in some of the more costly shale plays, according to an energy analyst with John S. Herold.

July natural gas futures went out with a bang on Wednesday as the contract broke two significant patterns en route to its close at $6.929, up 5.2 cents from Tuesday. Not only did the contract break the streak of seven consecutive regular session lower closes, it also was the first expiring prompt-month contract in five months not to go off the board in the $7.50s.

Changing weather patterns helped produce a mixed cash market Monday, but gains that ranged up to about a quarter handily outweighed the flat to mildly lower points that were concentrated in the Midcontinent/Midwest.

State public utility commissions should reverse their prohibitions on fixed term contracts and allow local distribution companies (LDC) to create portfolios of short-, medium- and long-term contracts, Linda Breathitt, a former FERC commissioner and Kentucky state commissioner, said last week.

State public utility commissions should reverse their prohibitions on fixed term contracts and allow local distribution companies (LDC) to create portfolios of short-, medium- and long-term contracts, Linda Breathitt, a former FERC commissioner and Kentucky state commissioner, said Monday.

The El Nino weather pattern, said NW Natural, which affected the western United States in December 2002, continued in early 2003, “such that January weather in NW Natural’s service area was 15% warmer than average.” Overall, first quarter temperatures were 8% warmer than average and 12% warmer than in the first quarter of 2002.

Incentives and profits for speculative trading are out, and traditional hedging and marketing centered on assets are in, according to the head of theWestern Power Trading Forum.

To some extent the West and East traded price patterns Wednesday. Eastern points, which had been softening a day earlier, registered gains nearly across the board ranging from about a nickel to a dime. In the West, only the San Juan Basin, Pacific Northwest, intra-Alberta, Malin and California border-SoCalGas markets continued to build on their gains from earlier in the week. Rockies and PG&E-related points (border and citygate) fell about 20 cents.