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Spot prices saved their best for last — at least in the viewpoint of bullish traders — by making the strongest gains of last week virtually across the board on Friday. A large futures uptick a day earlier combined with increasing weather-based load in some areas to support the physical market.

Since 1994, when Dow Chemical Co. first reported its energy and conservation performance, the company says it has saved 1,600 trillion Btu. Dow’s program has resulted in energy savings of $8.6 billion and has prevented 86 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, a company official told U.S. lawmakers.

AGL Resources Inc. subsidiary Virginia Natural Gas (VNG) announced Thursday that its asset management plan, managed by another AGL Resources subsidiary, Sequent Energy Management, saved the utility’s customers $1.89 million in 2006. Over the past six years, VNG said the Sequent asset management plan has generated approximately $19 million in savings through reduced gas costs for its customers.

In Friday’s holiday-shortened trading session, June natural gas saved its best for last on its expiration day. After trading in the high $5.80s and low $5.90s for a majority of the session, the contract recorded new lows for the move in the last 40 minutes of trading before going off the board at $5.925 at 1 p.m. EDT, down a nickel on the day. The close Friday was 3.7 cents below the previous week’s close.

Putting in their eighth up day out of the last nine sessions, September natural gas futures on Friday saved their best for the last 15 minutes of the regular session. During this time, the prompt month rallied to record a new $8.750 high before settling at $8.700, up 22.9 cents on the day.

Shrugging off gains achieved in the nearby crude oil pit, the natural gas futures market set new lows for the week Friday as traders liquidated positions in concert with some negative technical factors and ahead of mild weather expected this week. At $6.442, the newly-anointed prompt month July was down 13.1 cents for the session, but still up 3.3 cents for the week.

Natural gas bulls saved their best for last Friday, as they buoyed prices to a new two-week highs amid a combination of profit-taking and short-covering. After moving steadily higher throughout the session, the January contract spiked at the close to finish the week at $2.846, up an even 9 cents on the day and 27.8 cents above where the contract was the Friday before.

Nearly 20 years of competition in the natural gas market has reduced national energy costs by more than $600 billion, according to a new study issued last week.

Nearly 20 years of competition in the natural gas market has reduced national energy costs by more than $600 billion, according to a new study issued Monday.