Revealing

A week after news of SemGroup LP’s implosion due to $3.2 billion in crude oil trading losses, the dust is still settling, revealing more creditors with direct exposure to the troubled company (see Daily GPI, July 24). On Monday Pioneer Natural Resources Co. announced that it has approximately $30 million of unpaid pre-bankruptcy claims for condensate sold to certain subsidiaries of SemGroup.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the Feb. 5-9 workweek was supposed to feature above-normal temperatures in virtually all of the East and the eastern end of the Southwest (see Daily GPI, Jan. 30). But revealing the uncertainty of weather forecasts made several days in advance, the impending return of sub-freezing lows in the Midwest and New England and lows in the 30s in the lower Northeast and South resulted in double-digit price gains across the board Tuesday.

September natural gas futures suffered a double-digit drubbing Thursday as the release of fresh storage inventory data revealing another large injection of 77 Bcf served to further allay concerns of a supply shortfall.

After digesting the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage report revealing that 102 Bcf had been withdrawn for the week ended March 2, natural gas futures traders on Thursday ultimately set their sights on lower prices, bringing the April contract to a low of $7.150 before settling at $7.239, down 12.7 cents on the day.

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.

Following an onslaught of bad news including the announcement of a fourth quarter net loss, American Electric Power Co. (AEP) shares fell more than 5% Friday $25.65. The company reported a fourth quarter net loss of $837 million, or $2.47 a share, compared to net income of $52 million, or 16 cents a share a year earlier.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) flexed its muscles on Thursday, revealing its strong position in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) natural gas market. The exchange said about one million natural gas contracts have been cleared through its system since March with a notional value of about $10 billion. ICE said it also set a new daily cleared volume record for natural gas transactions in the United Kingdom on Thursday and has cleared more than one billion therms in the that country since September.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) flexed its muscles on Thursday, revealing its strong position in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) natural gas market. The exchange said about one million natural gas contracts have been cleared through its system since March with a notional value of about $10 billion. ICE said it also set a new daily cleared volume record for natural gas transactions in the United Kingdom on Thursday and has cleared more than one billion therms in the that country since September.