Rising

Cash gas numbers were pushed higher almost across the board Tuesday by rising power generation load, which also increased electricity prices at most trading pools. Flatness was limited to the Florida citygate and FGT Mobile Bay in the East and to San Juan-Blanco in the West. Otherwise, most points were up between a nickel and about a dime, but larger gains were recorded in the Rockies and at Northeast citygates.

Cash gas numbers were pushed higher almost across the board Tuesday by rising power generation load, which also increased electricity prices at most trading pools. Flatness was limited to the Florida citygate and FGT Mobile Bay in the East and to San Juan-Blanco in the West. Otherwise, most points were up between a nickel and about a dime, but larger gains were recorded in the Rockies and at Northeast citygates.

Even with futures no longer pointing out an upward path, the cash market continued to forge ahead Wednesday with new gains that remained mostly in double digits. As on the day before, a large majority of increases were between about a dime and 15 cents.

For a third straight trading day Monday, mild firmness was the dominant cash market trait. A few scattered points fell by a couple of pennies, but the rest saw prices ranging from flat to nearly a dime higher in most cases. Overall increases remained small, however, as a majority of upticks were less than a nickel.

The spell of rising prices based on little or no fundamental support finally was broken Wednesday. Price movement ranged from flat to about 15 cents down, with most declines between about a nickel and a little more than a dime. Western numbers tended to see the smallest losses due to a blast of colder than expected weather that prompted a low-linepack OFO by El Paso (see Transportation Notes).

With the AGA report of yet another weekly injection of 7 Bcf for the second week of November and mild weather continuing across most of the country, natural gas spot prices tumbled lower again Wednesday, causing some unusual price spreads between regions and some significant storage plays for those with a little space still available. The Rocky Mountain region once again was the exception, with sharp increases attributed to a short-term storage play.

Just as “location, location and location” are the three key market factors to a real estate agent, it was all “weather, weather and weather” that was meaningful to gas traders Thursday. Strong price increases continued, although the uphill slope wasn’t quite as steep as the day before. Nearly all of Thursday’s increases ranged from about a dime to 20 cents with little geographical variation.

Despite the bullish double whammy of rising crude prices and the development of a tropical wave in the Atlantic, natural gas futures remained extremely quiet Friday, as traders elected to wait until a clearer fundamental and technical picture develops. With that the November contract spent a second straight day moving sideways, slipping 0.9 cents at the close to finish at $2.244. November crude oil, meanwhile, tracked 69 cents higher to close at $23.43.

Making steady progress since Monday against a rising tide of declining energy stock prices, Atlanta, GA-based Southern Co., Akron, OH-based FirstEnergy and New Jersey-based GPU Inc. again were on the plus side Wednesday. It wasn’t hard to figure, as U.S. aircraft carriers steamed toward the Caribbean and the Middle East, with fighter planes expected to follow soon. The three utilities own no foreign facilities.