Prop

With Thursday’s supportive storage build even failing to prop up the sagging natural gas futures market, the September contract on Friday was free to probe even lower price levels. September natural gas reached a low of $4.109 before closing the regular session at $4.117, down 5.4 cents from Thursday’s finish and 21.1 cents lower than the previous week’s close.

Not extended heat or Tropical Storm (TS) Bonnie or a bullish storage injection could prop up natural gas futures prices on Friday as the August contract traded in a tight 10-cent range before closing the day’s regular session at $4.580, down 6.3 cents from Thursday’s finish.

Despite cold weather in several areas following a weekend blizzard on the East Coast that normally would be expected to prop up spot prices, the cash market softened at nearly all points Monday. It was a case of just not cold enough in enough areas, along with the screen’s slide last week that got extended into a sixth day and high comfort levels with storage inventories, one source said.

Despite cold weather in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and associated up ticks in physical gas prices, natural gas futures slid lower Monday in another in a growing string of lackluster trading sessions. After pushing prices lower in the morning, local traders covered their shorts in the afternoon when it became apparent a close below $5.00 was not in the cards. May finished at $5.06, down 8.6 cents for the session. At 42,486, estimated volume was extremely light.

With little fresh news available to prop it up, natural gas futures sagged to new 10-week lows Tuesday afternoon as traders contemplated whether they would rather be long or short gas for the entire month of April at a price near the $5.00 level. A rebound at the closing bell was too little and too late for the prompt month which closed beneath key support, down 17.6 cents for the session at $5.077. April will expire at 2:30 p.m. EST Thursday.

Many observers have been scratching their heads lately over the inability of the futures and cash markets to show significant declines despite overwhelming fundamental reasons to do so. There’s been very little cold weather to speak of this heating season and gas storage levels are at record highs with 37% more gas in storage than at the same time last year, yet January gas futures remained in the mid $2.60s on Tuesday, down only 2.9 cents on the day to $2.657.

Due to warm winter weather in certain regions last month,increased fuel switching and industrial slowdowns, the countryconsumed 140 Bcf less natural gas than was anticipated in January,which led to much lower spot gas prices towards the end of themonth, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA)Short-term Energy Outlook for February.

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