Shouting

Despite enduring a topsy-turvy week of large swings in both directions, March natural gas futures finished the week within shouting distance of where they began. After hitting a high of $8.650 late in the afternoon, the prompt month settled at $8.613, up 26.6 cents on the day and 10.6 cents higher than the contract’s previous-week close.

With Commissioner Nora M. Brownell shouting “amen and hallelujah,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved last Wednesday to wrap up a raft of tangled and drawn-out cases that involved the payment of refunds by producers who sold natural gas in the early 1980s at prices that, because they included the Kansas ad valorem tax, were above the maximum legal limit allowed.

With Commissioner Nora M. Brownell shouting “amen and hallelujah,” the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission moved Wednesday to wrap up a raft of tangled and drawn-out cases that involved the payment of refunds by producers who sold natural gas in the early 1980s at prices that, because they included the Kansas ad valorem tax, were above the maximum legal limit allowed.

While no one is ringing the alarm bell and shouting about asupply crunch, near-term Gulf of Mexico gas supplies are expectedby many to suffer from depletions and diminished drilling due tolow prices.