Sort

Still trying to sort out the market’s direction following August futures’ 38.5-cent explosion higher last Thursday, the front-month contract on Monday scouted lower values in the morning before rebounding into the afternoon. At the end of Monday’s regular session, the result was similar to Friday’s noncommittal tenth-of-a-cent gain as August natural gas added two pennies to close at $3.689.

Those looking for a natural gas storage injection Thursday morning ended up being equally as wrong as those looking for a withdrawal…sort of…as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that inventory levels remained flat during the week ending March 27. Further confounding traders was the disclosure by the EIA that it made “reclassifications” and “corrections” to the overall level of storage, which effectively canceled out what would have been a 9 Bcf injection for the week. The confusion sent May natural gas futures on an up-and-down odyssey immediately following the report before the contract ended up closing at $3.782, up 8.7 cents from Wednesday’s finish.

In a region conflicted between its past and future energy scenarios, Oregon’s Gov. Ted Kulongoski has signed an executive order creating the Oregon Energy Planning Council to sort through a complex set of strategies involving new natural gas sources, more renewable-based electricity and a greater reliance on energy efficiency and conservation.

ExxonMobil Corp. has asked Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to reconsider its termination of the North Slope Point Thomson Unit (PTU) leases held by it and BP Exploration (Alaska), Chevron U.S.A. Inc. and ConocoPhillips Alaska. The company also filed a claim with DNR for $800 million in damages as a “precautionary matter” and warned that the PTU termination threatens the state’s gasline plans.

Prior to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), FERC was “sort of like a snaggletooth tiger,” but it has a “full mouth of teeth now” to enforce its rules and regulations, said the agency’s top cop last Wednesday.

Prior to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), FERC was “sort of like a snaggletooth tiger,” but it has a “full mouth of teeth now” to enforce its rules and regulations, said the agency’s top cop Wednesday.

It will take at least two more months, and maybe through the first half of next year, for California’s state agencies to sort out their respective responsibilities for implementing the state’s new global warming laws (AB 32 and SB 1368), according to a joint report by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Energy Commission (CEC) last week.

It will take at least two more months, and maybe through the first half of next year, for California’s state agencies to sort out their respective responsibilities for implementing the state’s new global warming laws (AB 32 and SB 1368), according to a joint report by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Energy Commission (CEC) on Monday.

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.