Spent

After gapping higher in Access trading to open Monday’s regular session at $14.900, January natural gas futures spent the rest of the afternoon between $14.470 and $14.930 before settling at $14.841, up 52.9 cents on the session.

The November aftermarket closed out Tuesday much as it spent virtually all of the month — with spot prices at dollar-plus deficits to first-of-month indexes at nearly all points (Questar and NIT [NOVA Inventory Transfer] were the exceptions). The spread of winter-like weather had most points on the rise, although flat to lower numbers were scattered here and there.

After gapping under $12 in the overnight Monday Access session to open Tuesday at $11.80, December natural gas spent the majority of the regular session trying to rebound. The prompt month got as high as $12.07 before collapsing again to close at $11.86, down 34.5 cents. Tuesday’s trade brings the week’s total losses to $1.195 after only two days of trading.

With the November contract’s expiration out of the way, December natural gas spent its first regular session as front month exploring support lines. After notching a low of $12.88, December went on to settle at $13.055, down 62.9 cents on the day and 11.2 cents lower than the contract’s previous Friday close. November natural gas expired Thursday at $13.832.

For a utility that has spent millions of dollars and more than a decade to boost its environmental programs, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. now can tout its 33-story headquarters building in downtown San Francisco as another ecological resource of immense value since two nesting endangered peregrine falcons set up a permanent household atop the building and are nurturing their second group of eggs over the past 12 to 15 months. The scene has attracted widespread attention from local news media, academia and bird lovers in California.

After settling below $6 on two consecutive sessions prior to the long holiday weekend, March natural gas futures on Tuesday spent the first half of the day getting back to $6 and the second half exploring higher, settling at $6.103, up 19.5 cents. The April natural gas contract trumped that, closing 23.4 cents higher at $6.221.

Prices exited last week in much the same fashion they had spent the previous four days: falling at nearly all points, with a few scattered flat numbers thrown into the mix. Friday’s softness was anticipated because of generally weak cooling load outside the Southwest, a bearish storage report Thursday and the lack of any viable tropical storm threats to offshore production.

Unable to follow up on their whopping 27.6-cent rally on Tuesday, August natural gas futures spent Wednesday shaving off some of the gain ahead of Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report for the week ended July 2. The prompt month traded as low as $6.335 before settling at $6.37, down 5.4 cents on the day.

After a few roller-coaster ups and downs during morning trading, the July natural gas futures contract spent the afternoon on a steady decline, closing down 9.2 cents at $6.115. Notching its fifth consecutive down day, the prompt month once again approached the psychological $6 level as it reached a low on the day of $6.095.