Returned

Uniform direction of price movement returned to the spot market Tuesday after a lengthy absence. Quotes rose across the board, with only one point failing to realize a double-digit advance. The gains were based primarily on a warm spell in the Northeast and the previous day’s 29-cent increase by the October futures contract, which will see its last day of trading Wednesday.

Unified price movement returned to the cash market Friday, and the direction was downward in a big way. Spot quotes bowed to relatively moderate late-summer weather trends in most areas (either existing or in the weekend forecast), prior-day futures weakness, the weekend drop of industrial load and new indications that little storage injection capacity remains with nearly two months left to go in the traditional injection season.

The cash market returned to its recently dominant trend of mixed price movement Friday, with most points being flat or rising or falling less than a dime. The numbers of gainers and losers were approximately equal as the approaching return of hotter weather in some areas was arrayed against prior-day screen weakness and the drop of industrial load that occurs over a weekend.

Unified price movement returned to the cash market Thursday for only the second time in about two months. And like the trading date of June 8 (see Daily GPI, June 11), the direction was down. Dwindling cooling load in northern market areas and negative futures guidance from the previous day resulted in double-digit drops across the board.

Most of the cash market weakened as many traders (but not all) returned Thursday from the midweek holiday. Cooling load was still not up to early-July standards outside the western U.S. While the penny drop by August futures Tuesday had negligible negative guidance for Thursday’s cash trading, a further 13.6-cent screen drop Thursday likely will have more impact on weekend deals struck Friday.

U.S. natural gas reserves, boosted by existing field extensions, increased for the seventh year in a row in 2005, with proved dry gas reserves up 6.2% from 2004 — the largest annual increase since 1970, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Tuesday. Onshore reserve additions were big enough to overcome a 10% decline in offshore Gulf of Mexico (GOM) numbers, which fell year-over-year partly because of last year’s hurricanes.

Williams said it will take a $54 million nonrecurring, after-tax charge in the second quarter of 2006 as a result of jury verdicts returned earlier this week against two of its subsidiaries for breach of contract and fraud in connection with the design and construction of four Louisiana gas processing plants.

After finishing last week’s trading on a two-day climb, February natural gas futures on Monday returned to the downside with a little help from a faltering crude rally. Prompt-month natural gas reached a low of $8.310 on Monday before settling at $8.574, down 70.6 cents on the day.

Mixed pricing returned to the cash marketplace Friday, but this time declines were in a lopsided majority. Forecasts of mild to cool weather throughout much of the U.S. and Canada and the typical weekend drop in industrial demand were the chief price depressants.