Pushing

A day after dropping 28.2 cents, natural gas futures staged a rally on Friday, with traders pushing the June contract to a high of $10.785 before it finished the session at $10.777, up 21.6 cents from Thursday, but 32.4 cents lower than the contract’s close a week earlier. The May contract expired April 28 at $11.280.

Tuesday’s 48.7-cent dive by June futures had the expected impact of pushing cash prices lower at most points in the launch of the May aftermarket Wednesday. Slowly moderating weather trends in the Midwest and Northeast also contributed to the softness. However, forecasts of sharply lower temperatures in the Rockies Thursday helped prices there to recover partially from their great weakness on Tuesday.

After pushing higher last Wednesday and again on Friday, natural gas futures — fueled by a shift to colder temperatures in near-term forecasts — appeared ready to record a third day of significant gains on Monday. While recording a high of $7.960 on the day, the December contract, which goes off of the board on Wednesday, ended up closing out Monday’s session at $7.723, up only 2.3 cents on the day.

Firing off of Friday’s 22.9-cent jump, bulls attempted to capitalize on the momentum Monday by pushing June natural gas futures to a high of $7.930. The contract ended up backing off slightly to close at $7.863, up 3.2 cents from Friday’s close.

Pushing greater use of hydrogen as an energy alternative may be a “market opportunity” for the natural gas industry, according to an in-progress study unveiled Tuesday as part of the National Hydrogen Association’s annual conference in Long Beach, CA.

Pushing its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plans one step further, Cheniere Energy Inc. on Tuesday announced the activation of Cheniere’s North American LNG Gateway program with the issuance of a Request for Proposals to sell to Cheniere up to 200 cargoes per year of LNG for the years 2008-2010.

After pushing for an overhaul of the nation’s energy policy since 2001, President Bush could get his wish this year as the U.S. Congress may actually make good on his request to have an agreed-upon energy bill on his desk by Aug. 1 — or not.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger kept pushing energy-saving messages for this summer in his weekly statewide radio address last weekend, but other news media picked up belatedly on the governor’s comments about liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal siting in the state that he made in response to media questions last Thursday (see Daily GPI, June 24). The governor’s press office stressed that Schwarzenegger is waiting for the regulatory processes to be completed regarding both proposed onshore and offshore LNG terminals.

Despite already pushing gas and oil price forecasts well past Wall Street consensus estimates, analysts at Raymond James & Associates once again raised their short-term predictions for crude oil and natural gas prices based largely on low OPEC productive capacity, maturing non-OPEC production areas and a much tighter link between oil and natural gas prices.