Pushed

While some believe natural gas prices have been dragged higher by $100/bbl oil or pushed up by supply shortfalls, these factors don’t explain the step-change gas prices have experienced. Higher full-cycle gas production costs — due particularly to greater reliance on unconventional supply basins — have driven the prices all gas consumers pay to a new level, one where they’re bound to stay, a ConocoPhillips executive told NGI.

Nearly all of the cash market was on the rise Tuesday, pushed primarily by the previous day’s 15.2-cent screen gain and secondarily by colder weather returning to the Rockies. The overall firmness defied moderate temperatures in many areas, but likely derived some support from storage purchases as the refill season gets under way with a significant Gulf of Mexico supply constraint in the form of the Independence Hub outage (see Daily GPI, April 14; April 10).

One day ahead of expiration, April natural gas futures pushed higher on Wednesday, reaching a high of $9.650 before closing out the day at $9.572, up 15.3 cents from Tuesday’s finish. However, the gains in gas futures were overshadowed by May crude, which shot $4.68 higher on the day to close at $105.90/bbl.

U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal operators pushed to add more capacity at their facilities to prepare for what many thought would be an onslaught of needed gas supplies. But was it the right call?

Finding qualified workers to build the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) has pushed the cost of the eastern leg of the project up 11%, or $500 million, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) confirmed last week.

Finding qualified workers to build the massive Rockies Express Pipeline (REX) has pushed the cost of the eastern leg of the project up 11%, or $500 million, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) confirmed Tuesday.

Citing adverse weather conditions, Rockies Express Pipeline LLC (REX) Thursday pushed back its timeline for completing the remainder of its western leg known as REX-West.

Deciding to go out with a bang on expiration, traders on Wednesday pushed December natural gas futures to a low of $7.180 before it closed out at $7.203, down 35.4 cents from Tuesday’s close. Even more interesting was the fact that the incoming prompt-month contract — January 2008 — dropped below $7.500 for the first time since summer 2005 to close Wednesday at $7.486, down 33.1 cents.

December natural gas futures pushed north of $8 for a third consecutive session on Wednesday but failed to capture the gains once again. The contract finished out the session at $7.835, down 11.4 cents from Tuesday.