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Near-month gas futures tumbled 21.4 cents on St. Patrick’s Day in weak trading to end the week at $7.053, up about 33 cents from where the week started but with a clear indication that the recent rally has lost significant steam.

Dominion Exploration and Production said it started gas production from the Rigel and Seventeen Hands deepwater fields, located about 120 miles southeast of New Orleans in Mississippi Canyon Blocks 296 and 299, respectively, and expects production to reach 160 MMcf/d by the end of the month.

Helped lower by sagging crude oil futures and doubts surrounding just how cold the coming “cold front” will be, March natural gas futures started Tuesday’s session more than 10 cents lower than Monday’s close and continued lower into territory not seen since last summer. The prompt month put in a new front-month low before settling at $7.858, down 13.7 cents from Monday’s finish.

Spurred higher by somewhat colder temperatures and a spooked crude futures market, February natural gas started Tuesday above $9 and continued higher from there. The prompt month peaked at $9.290 just before settling at $9.168, up 37.7 cents from Friday’s close.

The U.S. Coast Guard Sector Northern New England has started reviewing the safety and security issues of liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker traffic through Passamaquoddy Bay and its approaches to Mill Cove and Split Rock, ME, in conjunction with FERC’s permitting process for Downeast LNG’s proposed $400 million terminal and Quoddy Bay LLC’s LNG project in Maine.

Williams said it has started receiving gas and oil production at its Devil’s Tower deepwater spar in the eastern Gulf of Mexico from the Triton and Goldfinger fields, 140 miles southeast of New Orleans on Mississippi Canyon Blocks 771, 772 and 728.

Enstor said Monday that it has started solution mining a salt formation in West Texas for Phase I of its Waha Gas Storage project. When fully developed, the storage project is expected to provide 9.5 Bcf of working gas capacity, 800,000 Dth/d of withdrawal capacity and 450,000 Dth/d of injection capacity to seven pipelines within three miles of the existing Waha Hub.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) started an open season Wednesday to test market interest in new forward or backhaul transportation service beginning in 2008 or 2009 when new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals are scheduled to begin service in Atlantic Canada and in the northeastern United States.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission System (PNGTS) started an open season Wednesday to test market interest in new forward or backhaul transportation service beginning in 2008 or 2009 when new liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals are scheduled to begin service in Atlantic Canada and in the northeastern United States.