Relatively

The Northeast, with its relatively moderate weather for late November, tended to be the weakest market area in Monday’s post-holiday spot trading. Otherwise, numbers were mixed in the Gulf Coast and seeing major rallies solidly across the Midcontinent/Midwest and West.

Relatively mild weather, weak weekend demand, declining storage space and slowly returning Gulf production pressured prices much lower on Friday with quite a few points down more than a dollar and the majority off more than 60 cents from levels on Thursday.

On a split vote and with a relatively large amount of discussion, the five-member California Public Utilities Commission, minus one of its commissioners, voted 3-1 Thursday to approve an expanded natural gas hedging program for Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The continuing concern over the impact of rising wholesale prices for natural gas in the wake of the two Gulf Coast hurricanes was a strong focus of both the action and discussion.

While it continues to face challenges and criticism from the financial community for its continuing losses and relatively heavy debt load, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. sees the wholesale power market turning around in key areas and is determined to play a role in importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) along the West Coast of North America, according to the CEO Peter Cartwright.

After its meteoric rise from a July 25 low of $7.185 to a Monday high of $8.870, September natural gas futures decided to put in a rare and relatively quiet day of trading on Tuesday.

Although its wholesale natural gas costs have remained relatively flat at the $6.50/dth level, NorthWestern Energy on Thursday filed with Montana state regulators for an annual retail gas utility rate adjustment that could increase charges by about 12%. The hike is due largely to the elimination of a rate credit that retail customers have been receiving, the South Dakota-based utility holding company said.

It was a relatively short run with less than 20,000 customers, but Spokane, WA-based Avista Utilities Friday ended its natural gas utility operations in South Lake Tahoe, CA, turning them over to Las Vegas, NV-based Southwest Gas Corp., which is the gas utility distributor in the surrounding mountains and foothills east of Sacramento. Avista said the sale is consistent with its renewed focus on the Pacific Northwest.

With the natural gas storage report for the week ended March 18 revealing a relatively small 89 Bcf withdrawal, April natural gas futures traders took the bearish news and immediately probed lower, breaking through support at $7.05 within the first five minutes following the report.

While the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage report came in near consensus estimates, the 61 Bcf withdrawal for the week ended Dec. 10 was less than half of the 134 Bcf that was withdrawn during the same week last year.