Riding

After riding the roller-coaster of a session Monday up to a $9.595 high only to return to the station with a 2-cent loss at $9.346, natural gas futures traders were content to mostly sit on the sidelines Tuesday, perhaps in an effort to recover from motion sickness. The April contract traded in a quiet 18-cent range between $9.270 and $9.450 before closing out the day at $9.353, up less than a penny.

Riding a temporary price break in the Rockies, Oregon expects natural gas prices to remain stable for the year, according to reports from the major gas industry players in the Northwest. They gave projections to the Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) at a workshop last week in Salem, OR.

Riding a temporary price break in the Rockies, Oregon expects natural gas prices to remain stable for the year, according to reports Tuesday from the major gas industry players in the Northwest. They gave projections to the Oregon Pubic Utility Commission (PUC) at an afternoon workshop in Salem, OR.

Riding a $17.4 billion utility rate base, San Francisco-based PG&E Corp.’s transformation and investment plans are “on track” to generate average annual earnings-per-share growth of 7.5% over the next five years, according to PG&E’s CEO and CFO, who held a conference call for financial analysts Wednesday announcing flat first quarter results. A major 2007 general rate case and several emerging industry issues will have important impacts on the company’s ability to realize the growth now envisioned, the senior officials said.

Riding strong utility results, Minneapolis, MN-based Xcel Energy Thursday reported increased earnings for the first quarter compared to the same period last year. Operating revenues jumped nearly $500 million to $2.88 billion from $2.39 billion in the first quarter of 2005.

Riding the support of both cold weather demand and a prior-day futures spike of more than a dollar, natural gas cash prices were up strongly again Wednesday across the board. Gains ranged from a little less than a dime to nearly $1.10. A large majority of the increases were at least 40 cents or more.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies, already riding a wave of record earnings, should expect to see their share prices further strengthen this year on continued high natural gas and oil prices, according to a new report by Raymond James.

Exploration and production (E&P) companies, already riding a wave of record earnings, should expect to see their share prices further strengthen this year on continued high natural gas and oil prices, according to a new report by Raymond James.

Already riding the crest of a wave of heating load to higher prices, the cash market used an extra shove from Monday’s 36.6-cent screen spike to record even bigger gains in most cases Tuesday than it started the week with.