Showed

With fresh private and government forecasts for a return of winter chill, cash market averages on Monday for Tuesday delivery showed gains dominating much of the country with the exception of some northeastern points, which posted a number of $1-plus declines.

With fresh private and government forecasts for a return of winter chill, cash market averages on Monday for Tuesday delivery showed gains dominating much of the country with the exception of some northeastern points, which posted a number of $1-plus declines.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. showed a profit for all of last year and in the fourth quarter, compared to a sea of red ink for the same 12-month and fourth-quarter periods in 2008. The company attributed the turnaround to successful utility and hedging initiatives. Nonutility oil and gas operations suffered in both periods last year due to substantial impact from low wholesale natural gas prices.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. showed a profit for all of last year and in the fourth quarter, compared to a sea of red ink for the same 12-month and fourth-quarter periods in 2008. The company attributed the turnaround to successful utility and hedging initiatives. Nonutility oil and gas operations suffered in both periods last year due to substantial impact from low wholesale natural gas prices.

Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. showed a profit for all of last year and in the fourth quarter, compared to a sea of red ink for the same 12-month and fourth-quarter periods in 2008. The company attributed the turnaround to successful utility and hedging initiatives. Nonutility oil and gas operations suffered in both periods last year due to substantial impact from low wholesale natural gas prices.

Weekend prices showed almost a directly opposite pattern from deals done a day earlier. Whereas Northeast citygates had spiked Thursday while the rest of the market was softer, on Friday it was the Northeast (along with the Rockies) plunging while all other points were rising, based largely on the bullish Nymex response to Thursday morning’s storage withdrawal report.

December natural gas futures showed some comfort with its current price level a day ahead of expiration as the contract traded in a fairly slim 17.4-cent range before closing out Monday’s regular session at $4.473, up 4.9 cents from Friday’s finish.

Natural gas traders were unimpressed with the weekend arrival of Tropical Storm Ida in the Gulf of Mexico and it showed in trading on Monday as the December contract traded back and forth during the day before closing the regular session at $4.670, up 7.5 cents from Friday’s finish.

The cash market showed it had not yet run out of steam, despite a futures rally faltering slightly a day earlier, as it logged increases across the board Wednesday in its third straight day of overwhelming firmness. Outside the well established major heat areas of the south-central and southwestern U.S., cooling load was no stronger than normal at best in the South and about to start receding to some extent in the Northeast following an extended above-normal period.