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The July Nymex contract gained 2.8 cents to settle Monday at$2.364, thanks in large measure to momentum the contract gainedafter it filled in the technical chart gap with its early move downto $2.295. However, the upside was capped by resistance at $2.43,and July settled right in the middle of its technical tradingrange. “July trading is pretty much in cruise control now,” asource said. “A lot of people have already gotten out of theirpositions, so I think you’ll see the rangebound trading continue[today]. However, that range is 15 cents, so trading will mostlikely be volatile, which will be the first time in months acontract has expired with a good dose of volatility,” he told GPI.

Natural Gas Clearinghouse’s (NGC) decision earlier this month topost 40% of its San Juan-to-California capacity on El Paso NaturalGas for release appeared “at first blush” to be a “magnanimousgesture” on the marketer’s part, but it was far from that, said anenergy consultant.

Some traders saw little change in April post-weekend pricingMonday, but others reported small to moderate increases. Thatsurprised a few sources because of hearing talk last week that manybuyers planned to wait until Monday to make their purchases,expecting lower prices after futures had expired.

Natural gas producers scored a victory Wednesday when FERC ruledthey could post surety bonds in lieu of multi-million dollarrefunds to customers that fast coming due on March 9th. The bondmethod guarantees that customers will receive their refundpayments, and it gives producers what they seek most – a delay inpaying out the amounts until disputes over the refunds calculationsare resolved. The downside of this option is that producers will berequired to continue paying interest on the refund principal aslong as the bond remains in effect. Producers also have thealternative of paying their refund amounts into escrow accounts.