Seemed

Just when it seemed that cash prices had nowhere to go but down for quite a while, the market achieved a rally Thursday — sort of. Actually it was only a partial rally, as quite a few instances of flat quotes were scattered among points that were mostly less than a dime up or down from flat.

‘Playing it safe’ seemed to be the motto of natural gas futures traders again on Tuesday. After climbing as high as $11.860 in Tuesday morning trade, December natural gas began its search lower in the afternoon, putting in an $11.500 low before settling at $11.563, down 4.4 cents for the day.

November natural gas futures kept within a fairly small 31-cent range Friday as they seemed to hold onto some of the downward momentum from Thursday’s 80.8-cent drop. Ultimately, the prompt month settled at $13.226, down 14.9 cents from Thursday and 69.5 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close.

A report by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) released Thursday said competition in the residential and commercial natural gas market has failed due mainly to “substantial barriers” that favor distribution companies and effectively lock others out of the market.

With Hurricane Rita swirling through the Gulf of Mexico as a “strong hurricane” Friday afternoon, natural gas futures seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drummer. October natural gas explored lower during Friday’s regular session, settling at $12.324, down 46.6 cents on the day, but still $1.18 higher than the previous Friday’s close.

The daily cash market seemed to be looking for direction Tuesday, seeing an approximately even mix of higher, lower and flat numbers. Consistency within market regions was lacking again in some cases as quotes ranged from down 20 cents to up about 15 cents. Most price movement up or down was in single digits.

Concerns about the presence of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico and petroleum sympathy seemed to trump the release of a bearish natural gas storage report on Thursday, as July natural gas futures ended up settling 4.5 cents higher on the day at $7.045.

It may have seemed unlikely that the Northeast would repeat the price fireworks of last Friday and Tuesday when Transco Zone 6-New York City topped out at $30 in leading multi-dollar gains at area citygates. Well, not only were Northeast numbers skyrocketing again Thursday, but they surpassed the earlier super-bullishness.

A major price rally that hadn’t seemed to be in the cards as the week began occurred Tuesday. Sources could see little reason for both cash and screen numbers shooting higher other than crude oil futures touching the $50/bbl level Monday and again Tuesday, with record daily settlements being established each day.