Probe

Separate federal and state probes are now underway in California as the Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage well leak continues to draw the spotlight. The leaking well in the foothills northwest of downtown Los Angeles has officials focusing on unanswered questions regarding the volumes of methane escaping into the atmosphere and the extent to which over-pressurization led to the well failure.

Under pressure from San Bruno city officials asking for a state probe of its actions and growing internal tensions, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Wednesday reshuffled two key legal positions in the three consolidated penalty cases against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) for the 2010 natural gas transmission pipeline rupture and explosion in San Bruno.

Harnessing the momentum from Tuesday’s 15.3-cent plummet in December natural gas futures, traders continued to probe the downside Wednesday with mixed results. After starting the regular session with a low of $3.733, the prompt month contract reached a high of $3.800 just after 1 p.m. EDT before trimming lower to close at $3.749, down 3.2 cents from Tuesday’s regular session finish.

In the article “New Mexico Lawmakers Set Probe of February Gas Outages” (see Daily GPI, March 15), NGI incorrectly stated that a February natural gas service outage left “40,000” New Mexico Gas Co. customers without service. The correct number was 28,000 outages caused by the severe freeze (Feb. 1-3). NGI regrets the error.

Natural gas futures traders continued to probe the downside on Wednesday but had significantly reined in the bearish enthusiasm that was prevalent on Tuesday. January futures reached a low of $4.193 before closing the regular session at $4.222, down 3.3 cents from Tuesday’s regular session close.

November natural gas futures continued to probe lower price levels on Monday after Hurricane Richard weakened to a tropical depression and was expected to peter out over the Yucatan, sparing Gulf of Mexico energy interests and the Gulf Coast. The front-month contract reached a new low for the move of $3.255 before closing out the regular session at $3.317, down 1.5 cents from Friday’s finish.

With no real storm threats materializing in the tropics and no shortage of supply, natural gas futures continued to probe lower price levels Friday as the November contract recorded a low of $3.788 before closing the regular session at $3.797, down 7.5 cents from Thursday finish and 21.2 cents from the previous week’s close.

After working a little higher in early Thursday morning trade, the October natural gas futures contract returned to probe the downside after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that 58 Bcf was injected for the week ending Sept. 3.

Natural gas futures traders continued to probe $4 support on Tuesday as the September contract recorded a low of $4.027 before closing at $4.039, down 2.7 cents from Monday’s finish.