Readings

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) last week said most of the readings in a study of air emission quality in the Barnett Shale natural gas play in North Texas were “well below” acceptable chemical exposure limits.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Wednesday said most of the readings in a study of air emission quality in the Barnett Shale natural gas play in North Texas were “well below” acceptable chemical exposure limits.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) Wednesday said most of the readings in a study of air emission quality in the Barnett Shale natural gas play in North Texas were “well below” acceptable chemical exposure limits.

In the back and forth battle occurring recently in natural gas futures the November contract logged a forth day on Wednesday as it gained 14.7 cents to close at $7.010. Despite signs that the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season is on course to be just as underwhelming as the previous year, some traders point to the market’s seasonal tendency to buy at this juncture.

Temperatures showed no signs of abating Monday as the heat wave of the past two weeks moved forward with readings topping 100 degrees in a number of regions. As a result, September natural gas futures jumped higher in Sunday night’s Access trading session and kept the momentum rolling into Monday. The contract settled the day at $8.211, up $1.027 from Friday’s close.

Northwest reported Wednesday afternoon that over the past two days it “experienced a dramatic increase in the strain gauge readings on the 26-inch mainline” near Carson, WA in the Columbia River Gorge. As a result, a stress relief project previously scheduled to begin Friday instead was implemented Wednesday. The line was taken out of service in the interests of safety for excavation crews. Physical flows were cut to zero through Willard Compressor Station (normal design capacity of 425,000 Dth/d southbound and 487,000 Dth/d northbound). “Given the current flow patterns through this section of pipe, Northwest anticipates that storage flexibility will be used to meet customer requests during the outage,” it said. “However, any significant increase in nominations across the Gorge could result in capacity cuts and a possible deficiency period.” The pipeline did not project any date for ending the work.

Buoyed by crude oil and by falling mercury readings in the Northeast, natural gas futures rebounded sharply Tuesday morning as fund traders added to their long positions. However, the day’s advance was tempered slightly when afternoon as light selling entered the fray and deposited the prompt contract back below the psychologically important $6.00 mark. By virtue of its 12.5-cent advance and $5.977 close, the March contract remains in bulls hands. At 99,244 estimated volume was heavy and served to punctuate the price advance.