Reports

Energy analysts have been looking for signs in the government’s monthly natural gas production reports about whether the pullback in drilling last year has impacted supplies, and there appears to be more indications that the market is tightening, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) monthly report for December.

February natural gas futures released 29.5 cents of weather premium on Monday as reports forecast a warm-up to arrive late this weekend into next week. After recording a new high for the bull move of $6.108 just four days ago, the prompt-month contract closed Monday’s regular session at $5.454.

As a shivering North America closed out a week of brutal cold up North and unusual cold down South — with more to come over the weekend — reports of new peak day delivery records for natural gas pipelines were starting to trickle in.

Sparked by reports from utility consumer organizations and a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) en banc hearing on the issue the previous day, the state’s major investor-owned utilities (IOU) Thursday agreed to stop any customer service shutoffs at least through the rest of the year.

A controversy over possible falsified climate change reports has been growing in England and the United States as world leaders, including President Obama, prepare to attend the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18.

A controversy over possible falsified climate change reports has been growing in England and the United States as world leaders, including President Obama, prepare to attend the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change to be held in Copenhagen Dec. 7-18.

August natural gas futures fell Tuesday as traders digested economic reports showing figures that were less than what analysts had expected. Longer-term technical traders note that the market is moving within a broad trading range but have their parameters in place to identify when the market is ready to stage a meaningful advance.

August natural gas wasted no time in making its mark Monday on the futures market in its first regular session action as the front-month contract, shedding 16.1 cents to close at $3.944 as the fear premium associated with a possible storm in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend fully dissipated.

FERC has extended the deadline to July 1 for companies to file Form No. 552 reports detailing their aggregate volumes of natural gas purchases and sales for last year. The deadline initially was May 1.