Reaching

After gapping lower for the second session in a row and reaching a new two-week low, natural gas futures rebounded at the close Wednesday amid a wave of expiration-day short-covering. The June contract initially dipped into the $5.70s early Wednesday, but a short-covering rally ended up boosting the contract to a final settlement of $5.945, up 4.5 cents for the session and 74.5 cents above where June began its tenure as prompt contract a month ago. Comparatively, May 2003 closed 82.2 cents lower at $5.123.

With working gas levels in storage reaching a record low for the end of April, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting prices will remain near $5/MMBtu this year and could spike to more than $6 if the summer is hotter than normal, particularly in areas where there is a large amount of gas-fired power generation, such as the West and South Central regions.

After reaching a record pace for drilling and a high success rate, Canadian Natural Resources posted record net earnings of C$428 million (C$3.19 per common share) for the first quarter 2003, compared with C$99 million (C$0.81 per common share) for the first quarter of 2002 and C$209 million (C$1.56 per common share) in the previous quarter.

With working gas levels in storage reaching a record low for the end of April, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) is predicting prices will remain near $5/MMBtu this year and could spike to more than $6 if the summer is hotter than normal, particularly in areas where there is a large amount of gas-fired power generation, such as the West and South Central regions.

Most of the folks in the Lower 48 states apparently won’t be reaching for their flip-flops and suntan lotion anytime soon. Salomon Smith Barney meteorologist Jon Davis warned the “WINTER IS NOT OVER!” last week and a number of other weather forecasters agreed.

It appears that most of the Lower 48 states will not be reaching for their flip-flops and suntan lotion anytime soon as a number of weather forcasting agencies are calling for winter weather to go on, and on, and on. While pointing out that the storm now approaching the East will not be as fierce as the President’s Day “city storm,” Salomon Smith Barney meteorologist Jon Davis warned “WINTER IS NOT OVER!”

With the most far-reaching of a number of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects for North Baja, Mexico, Marathon Oil Co. announced last week that it expects to start construction this year on its $1.5 billion multi-faceted energy center near the border city of Tijuana. Marathon said its consortium had selected KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root) and Techint S. S. de C. V. as the engineering, procurement and construction contractors.

With the most far-reaching of a number of proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects for North Baja, Mexico, Marathon Oil Co. announced Monday that it expects to start construction this year on its $1.5 billion multi-faceted energy center near the border city of Tijuana. Marathon said its consortium had selected KBR (Kellogg Brown & Root) and Techint S. S. de C. V. as the engineering, procurement and construction contractors.

One day after the company announced that its asset sale total-to-date had reached $911 million, Aquila Inc. on Wednesday reported additional asset sales to bring the current total of assets it has sold or agreed to sell to $976.6 million. The boost moves the company closer to its stated goal announced in May to sell at least $1 billion in assets to strengthen its balance sheet and credit (see NGI, May 27).