Puts

Denver-based Forest Oil Corp. has agreed to purchase another independent producer, Forcenergy Inc., for $615 million in stock, a move that is expected to significantly boost the new company’s operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Alaska and Canada.

After tumbling 5% on the release of a bearish storage reportWednesday, the natural gas market clawed its way back up yesterdayas locals were forced to cover shorts after watching stubbornsupport in the $3.90s hold yet again. With that buying pressure,the August contract finished 13.5 cents higher at $4.166, recoupingmore than half of Wednesday’s losses.

The screen was back to putting on a spectacular show forwatchers again Monday. It took practically all day to get there,but the July futures contract kept pushing until it eventuallywound up at $4.398, up 35.5 cents on the day and just shy of thefinal June settlement at $4.406.

Although its emergency requests were partially met yesterday bythe Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the New York IndependentSystem Operator got an earful from FERC Commissioners, including anultimatum to get its systems in proper working order or have itsauthority taken away.

Ending a two-day slide, natural gas futures snapped back to lifeFriday as traders were drawn back to the long side of the market bysupportive technicals and stronger weekend cash prices. In just itssecond day as the prompt contract, May advanced 7.2 cents to finishat $2.945, just a penny off its high for the day and just 6 centsof its all-time high notched last Tuesday.

After gapping lower at the open, natural gas futures followed aslippery downward slope yesterday as traders liquidated positionsamid bearish technicals and ahead of warming temperatures expectedlater this week. In contrast to light selling seen last week,yesterday’s weakness manifested itself across the entire strip ofcontracts, led by the May contract which tumbled 7.6 cents to$2.744. Comparatively, the prompt contract eased 7.1 cents to$2.714 and the 12-month strip gave back 5.4 cents to $2.867.Trading was active, with an estimated 63,810 contracts changinghands.

DukeSolutions is actively looking to sell the gas and electrictrading portion of its business, a spokesman confirmed last week,hastening to explain that this sale has nothing to do with DukeEnergy’s main North American trading operations under Duke EnergyMerchants.

DukeSolutions is actively looking to sell the gas and electrictrading portion of its business, a spokesman confirmed last week,hastening to explain that this sale has nothing to do with DukeEnergy’s main North American trading operations under Duke EnergyMerchants.

Fueled by the East’s worst winter storm in four years, naturalgas futures erupted higher at the open yesterday as tradersestablished new longs with confidence.