Reaching

Once again hitching their wagon to crude oil futures, April natural gas futures on Wednesday probed lower, reaching a session low of $7.09 before settling at $7.138, down 11 cents on the day. While the decline was significant, it failed to test $7.05, which is considered to be the lower boundary of the market’s current trading range.

South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy announced Wednesday it has cleared the last pending hurdle in its post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization by reaching an agreement in principle to settle all pending legal actions, appeals, claims and disputes involving the utility holding company and Magten Asset Management Corp. and Law Debenture Trust Co. of New York LLC.

South Dakota-based NorthWestern Energy announced Wednesday it has cleared the last pending hurdle in its post-Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization by reaching an agreement in principle to settle all pending legal actions, appeals, claims and disputes involving the utility holding company and Magten Asset Management Corp. and Law Debenture Trust Co. of New York LLC.

Prices continued to rise at a majority of points Wednesday, but in nearly all cases the gains were smaller than the day before, with few reaching double digits. Flat to slightly lower quotes at some points in several areas kept the cash market from a solid bull run.

In the aftermath of sub-zero holiday temperatures and state officials reaching a slow boiling point, Houston-based CenterPoint Energy’s Minnesota utility operations were struggling to restore natural gas service to more than 1,000 residents who entered last weekend’s Christmas holiday without any heat. As of Tuesday, a net total of 605 “premises” were still shut off, a Minneapolis-based CenterPoint spokesperson said.

Loews Corp., a holding company whose far reaching businesses engage in everything from cigarette sales to hotel operations, will pay Entergy-Koch LP $1.136 billion for Gulf South Pipeline. Subsidiary Texas Gas Transmission LLC (TGT) will take over operations of the 8,000-mile natural gas pipeline, which transports 2 Bcf/d and provides a total working gas storage capacity of 68.5 Bcf.

Loews Corp., a holding company whose far reaching businesses engage in everything from cigarette sales to hotel operations, will pay Entergy-Koch LP $1.136 billion for Gulf South Pipeline. Subsidiary Texas Gas Transmission LLC (TGT) will take over operations of the 8,000-mile natural gas pipeline, which transports 2 Bcf/d and provides a total working gas storage capacity of 68.5 Bcf.

Loews Corp., a holding company whose far reaching businesses engage in everything from cigarette sales to hotel operations, will pay Entergy-Koch LP $1.136 billion for Gulf South Pipeline. Subsidiary Texas Gas Transmission LLC (TGT) will take over operations of the 8,000-mile natural gas pipeline, which transports 2 Bcf/d and provides a total working gas storage capacity of 68.5 Bcf.

Working gas levels in storage currently are more than 3.2 Tcf and should enter the heating season at record highs, but pricing differentials indicate that storage capacity may be becoming inadequate to handle a colder-than-normal winter, EnCana Corp. told FERC last week.