Plunged

With the December contract’s expiration rally on Monday already a mere memory, January natural gas futures on Tuesday plunged lower as traders weighed cold winter forecasts against the healthy natural gas storage situation. The newly minted front month put in a low on the day of $6.347 before closing the regular session at $6.386, down 44.1 cents from Monday’s close.

Downward momentum from Thursday’s weakness bled into the overnight trading session as December natural gas futures plunged into the $6.70s and $6.80s in early Friday morning trade and maintained that price level for the entire regular session. Prompt-month natural gas ended up closing at $6.757, down 22.2 cents from Thursday but only 2.6 cents lower than the previous week’s finish.

September natural gas futures plunged Monday as traders sought to discount the effects of Tropical Storm Edouard and shift their attention to the economy and a sympathetic drop by crude oil. September futures swan-dived 66.3 cents to $8.726 and the October contract fell 65.8 cents to $8.836. September crude oil dropped $3.69 to $121.41/bbl.

After capturing back some of their recent losses in Monday morning trading, June natural gas futures plunged lower in the afternoon, sinking below psychological support at $11 to close out Monday’s regular session at $10.954, down 14 cents from Friday’s close.

Prices rose moderately in most of the cash market Monday despite generally mild weather forecasts, but for the third week in a row quotes plunged to sub-dollar levels in the Rockies. A series of pre-dawn explosions on several gas pipelines in Mexico helped stoke some bullish sentiment as U.S. gas may be called upon to help replace Mexican supply shortfalls, although the U.S. export capability is limited (see related story).

Natural gas futures plunged in active trading Tuesday as traders elected to extract a storm premium from the market once it was realized that tropical storm activity was not a threat to Gulf infrastructure.

Dominion Resources Inc.’s net income in the final quarter of 2006 plunged 88% from a year ago, with the volatile exploration and production (E&P) segment posting an 83.6% drop in earnings compared with a year earlier. Dominion E&P, which the CEO said is “on track” to be sold by the end of 2Q2007, is rumored to be drawing the interest of private equity players, global oil and gas majors and several U.S.-based independents.

The February futures contract plunged while going off the board Monday, taking a sharp 25.8-cent swan dive to settle at $6.917 after having posted a $7.33 high around 11 a.m. March ended the day down 22.1 cents at $6.937. Despite the severe cold across much of the nation, there remains significant uncertainty over longer-term weather forecasts and what may happen to the large storage surplus.

Following the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) 46 Bcf natural gas storage withdrawal report Friday for the week ended Dec. 22, February natural gas immediately plunged to a low of $6.00 before rebounding just a minute later. In thin trading on the day, the prompt month settled early at 1 p.m. EST at $6.299, up 5.1 cents on the day but 51.1 cents lower for the week. January futures expired Wednesday at $5.838.