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Falling into a rather well worn pattern, June natural gas futures Thursday expanded the upside of the recent move by a few pennies before crashing back down to earth. The prompt-month contract notched a $11.428 high in the minutes that immediately followed the natural gas storage report’s release before retreating to close at $11.263, down 6.4 cents from Wednesday.

Critics of Canada’s energy industry and economic nationalists have been sent the message that markets, rather than politics, are still the drivers of energy policy north of the border through a National Energy Board (NEB) decision overruling objections and approving an export pipeline for oilsands production.

Most of the cash market was moderately softer in post-Christmas trading Wednesday as forecasts of sub-freezing lows had become rather scarce outside the Rockies and some locations in the upper Northeast. Activity was predictably light as some traders remained out of the office on holiday vacations and Boxing Day was being observed in Canada.

Natural gas traders are relying more heavily on upcoming weather patterns to determine short-term price direction rather than focusing on storage or demand patterns. The most important demand pattern natural gas futures traders were concerned about Tuesday was the supply of contracts, and the buyers prevailed. January natural gas futures rose 10.6 cents to $7.141 and February added 10.2 cents to $7.278.

A major producer group, in a letter last week to Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell, said access restrictions on U.S. natural gas supply rather than intentional manipulation of gas prices were the primary reason for volatility in the market. It hoped the governor, armed with better information on the gas market, would withdraw her request for an immediate congressional investigation into possible manipulation of gas prices.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador released its first-ever energy plan on Tuesday, a comprehensive strategy that will allow the province to become a “significant” player in the oil and natural gas business over the coming years. Among other things, the province plans to take a 10% equity stake in some oil and natural gas projects, and it is proposing a new natural gas royalty regime.

ANR Pipeline should be directed to credit the net revenues from a sale of 2.6 Bcf of “excess” storage gas to its shippers rather than be allowed to keep them, ConocoPhillips Co. told FERC last week.

It seemed rather unlikely but a combination of gradually warming temperatures in some areas and modest prior-day futures support propelled the cash market to gains at nearly all points Thursday. Only a small decline at Cheyenne Hub averted an across the board run of higher pricing and kept mixed daily price movement in play for yet another day.

Rather improbably, since cooling demand remains moderately subpar for early July outside the western U.S. and a holiday flow date was involved, prices rose in most of the cash market Tuesday. A few points that were flat to down about 15 cents extended a recent trend of mixed price movement nearly every day.