Quiet

Erasing almost all of Tuesday’s gains, March natural gas futures dropped 12.6 cents to close at $7.241 in a quiet regular session Wednesday as traders decided to take it easy ahead of Thursday’s potentially record-breaking natural gas storage report for the week ended Feb. 9.

March gas futures inched 5.4 cents lower Friday to $7.476 in a very quiet day of trading on this rare Feb. 2 when the famous Punxsutawney, PA groundhog failed to see his shadow, presaging an early spring. Little was revealed about what’s in store for this week, which is widely expected to be the coldest of the year for the Lower 48.

Apache Corp., which has been pretty quiet over the last year, on Thursday stepped into the spotlight, announcing it will spend $1 billion to acquire controlling interests in 28 oil and natural gas fields in the Permian Basin. The assets, purchased as part of a joint venture agreement with Anadarko Petroleum Corp., are expected to produce 9,000 b/d of oil and 18 MMcf/d of natural gas net to Apache this year.

While it was a quiet holiday for much of the energy industry, natural gas futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange showed no corresponding slow down. Amid reports of colder temperatures, November natural gas pushed to a high of $6.800 before coming back down to close at $6.429, up less than a penny on the day.

Seemingly unaffected by the significant strength in the petroleum sector, natural gas futures on Monday pushed lower as the tropics remained quiet and temperatures began to moderate in the U.S. After trading below the psychological $7 level in Sunday’s overnight session, September natural gas traded within a slim 21-cent range during Monday’s regular session before settling at $6.907, down 33.9 cents on the day.

While most industry players had been expecting a fairly quiet expiration for the July natural gas futures contract, bears kept the pressure on in trading Wednesday. After hitting a low of $5.810 late in the session, July natural gas ended up going off of the board at $5.887, down 22 cents on the day.

April natural gas was mostly quiet Wednesday as traders assessed the market’s next move. After making a mini-run higher in morning trade to hit a $6.880 high, the prompt-month contract receded from that point and bounced within a range from $6.690 to the mid-$6.80s for the remainder of the session, ultimately closing at $6.733, up 1.9 cents on the day.

March natural gas futures traded within a relatively quiet 30-cent range Tuesday before settling at $9.316, down 7.3 cents from Monday. The interesting thing about the otherwise mundane session was that the market saw almost no correction to Monday’s 88.2-cent gain.

Putting in a relatively quiet trading session, February natural gas futures, which expires Friday, opened 13.2 cents lower Wednesday at $8.550 and kept within a tight 19-cent trading range between $8.420 and $8.610 on the day before closing at $8.460, down 22.2 cents.