Snowstorm

Even with the East Coast buried under several feet of snow, and the potential for more frigid air to arrive by Christmas, natural gas futures fell short Thursday. The January Nymex gas futures contract settled 4.1 cents lower day/day at $2.636/MMBtu after the latest government storage report came in bullish, “just not record bullish.” Spot…

Natural gas futures pause on fluctuating weather outlooks, lower LNG demand Adequate supplies seen for remainder of winter despite upcoming cold blasts Northeast cash rallies again on approaching winter storm Natural Gas Futures Stall as Major Snowstorms Heads Toward East Coast Natural gas futures shifted into neutral Tuesday amid some inconsistencies in the weather data…

The physical market bounced higher by close to a dime on Monday as an April snowstorm buffeted the MidAtlantic and Northeast and western prices firmed on nuclear outages. Strong futures trading also added to the bullish mix, and at the close May had risen 8 cents to $2.007 and June had posted a gain of 8.1 cents to $2.096. June natural gas traded a hefty 143,000 contracts and June crude oil shed 77 cents to $1.0311/bbl.

With temperatures below freezing from the Rockies into Western Canada and a snowstorm in much of the Rockies being supplemented by 30s lows in much of the Midwest and falling mercury in the Northeast, it was hardly surprising to see cash prices extend their gains Wednesday. The previous day’s futures gain of 5.4 cents also was a bullish factor.

Almost the entire cash market fell Tuesday as heating load remained scarce despite a snowstorm that will be bearing down on the central Plains Wednesday. Only a nickel rise by Questar prevented across the board losses.

Despite a major snowstorm that slammed the Plains and the Midwest Friday and was bearing down on the East, a number of natural gas futures traders took profits following a week of trading higher. January natural gas futures on Friday put in a low of $8.350 before closing at $8.422, down 42.2 cents on the day but 32.3 cents higher than the previous week’s close on Wednesday (Nov. 22).

The Midwest snowstorm that gave such a lift to the first dailyprices of 1999 was being repeated to a lesser degree over theweekend and Monday, but this time there were no gains of 20 centsor more as a result. Instead, most of the cash market was flat todown as much as a dime Monday. Still-massive storage inventories,along with forecasts of warming weather in the North and a fallingscreen, were cited as reasons for the softness. Several sources described trading action as subdued.

“That’s what 20 inches of snow in Chicago will do for you,” aHouston-based producer said Monday in reference to the severeholiday weekend blizzard in the Midwest that propelled cash pricesupward by 20 cents or more at many points. What was being calledthe region’s worst winter storm in more than three decades leftfreezing temperatures across the eastern three-fourths of thenation and very strong heating load.