Revealed

A former El Paso natural gas trader revealed in court testimony that some of the data submitted by El Paso traders and used to calculate the index price of natural gas during the heydays before Enron Corp. brought the entire industry to its knees was “all fake.”

Williams unit Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. (Transco) last week revealed another potential piece of pipeline infrastructure that could ultimately help transport bountiful Rockies gas supplies to gas-needy northeastern markets.

November natural gas futures put in a small rebound Thursday morning following an Energy Information Administration (EIA) storage report that revealed that 57 Bcf was injected into underground stores for the week ended Sept. 28. The injection came in on the low side of most industry expectations and was well below historical comparisons. As a result, the prompt-month pushed higher to close at $7.412, up 13.5 cents from Wednesday.

BP Exploration & Production Inc. and Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC were revealed to be the big players at the table Wednesday when the Minerals Management Service (MMS) unveiled the winning bids in its Western Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil and natural gas Lease Sale 204. In all, winning bids for the 282 tracts offered totaled $290 million.

The recent open season for the Steckman Ridge gas storage project in Bedford County, PA, revealed customer interests that far exceeds its proposed working capacity of up to 12 Bcf, backers said Thursday.

The recent open season for the Steckman Ridge gas storage project in Bedford County, PA, revealed customer interests that far exceeds its proposed working capacity of up to 12 Bcf, backers said Thursday.

Near-month natural gas futures backtracked 7.3 cents Wednesday to $7.667, but the wimpy finish revealed little about the rodeo ride that took place during the trading day. The contract bounced all over the charts, dipping to a low of $7.50 after the opening bell, suddenly jumping up to a high of $7.960 about two hours later and then collapsing back below $7.60.

Recent sharp gas futures declines have undercut a second hedge fund in as many months. Greenwich, CT-based Amaranth Advisors LLC revealed last week that bad bets in natural gas futures have cost the company about 65% of its $9.5 billion asset value. Even more troubling is that other funds could follow, according to industry sources.

With lowly Ernesto — now a tropical depression — sticking to a northern path and allowing the Gulf Coast to continue to quietly observe Hurricane Katrina’s one-year anniversary, October natural gas futures dug lower Wednesday, exploring price territory carved out Tuesday by the expiring September contract.