Smile

Heading into the Labor Day weekend with a full tank of gasoline might give holiday-makers a reason to smile, but natural gas bulls staring at the end of summer with storage caverns brimming more than usual have little to cheer.

R.W. Beck’s second quarter gas price forecast could give bulls something to smile about, but bears might prefer to read a recent note from Citigroup’s futures research department.

R.W. Beck’s second quarter gas price forecast could give bulls something to smile about, but bears might prefer to read the latest from Citigroup’s futures research department.

FERC continued to smile upon natural gas pipeline projects right up until the very end of last week. Late Friday, the agency dismissed a plea by a Florida citizens advocacy group to stay Florida Gas Transmission’s (FGT) construction of a new compressor station as part of the pipeline’s Phase V expansion project in the state.

Southwest Gas of Las Vegas and Oneok Inc. of Tulsa, OK, received the blessing of Nevada’s Consumer Advocate and a Nevada state legislator for their proposed merger.

Southwest Gas of Las Vegas and Oneok Inc. of Tulsa, OK receivedthe blessing of Nevada’s Consumer Advocate and a Nevada statelegislator for their proposed merger.

Bulls have not had much to smile about in the last five monthsat the New York Mercantile Exchange, so it was to their surpriseand delight when a trio of factors — storage, technicals, andanother possible tropical storm — combined to lift the marketThursday. The three remaining months in 1998 all received an almostequal boost with October edging out the others slightly byadvancing 6 cents to settle at $1.712 in moderate trading activity.

It has been a long time since bullish traders have had much tosmile about in the natural gas market. Both fundamentals andtechnicals have exerted their influence on the market for most ofthe summer, and, in doing so, have forced natural gas prices todepths not witnessed since 1995. However, Monday morning traderswere greeted with two potentially bullish developments — onetechnical in nature and the other fundamental — that prompted ashort-covering rally enabling the market to eat away at some oflast week’s price loses. The October contract led the way,advancing 8.8 cents to settle at $1.752 yesterday.