Stormy

Traders on Tuesday continued to look past the current cold and stormy spell that is dominating the eastern half of the United States as the March natural gas futures contract continued to probe lower values. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $5.262 before closing the day’s regular session at $5.290, down 11.1 cents from Monday’s finish.

Traders on Tuesday continued to look past the current cold and stormy spell that is dominating the eastern half of the United States as the March natural gas futures contract continued to probe lower values. The prompt-month contract reached a low of $5.262 before closing the day’s regular session at $5.290, down 11.1 cents from Monday’s finish.

The offshore industry has taken more precautions to prepare for hurricane season, but as it continues to recover from last year, a stormy season could provide a “meaningful catalyst” for commodity prices, especially natural gas, Raymond James energy analysts said in their latest Stat of the Week.

The offshore industry has taken more precautions to prepare for hurricane season, but as it continues to recover from last year, a stormy season could provide a “meaningful catalyst” for commodity prices, especially natural gas, Raymond James energy analysts said in their latest Stat of the Week.

As temperatures in a number of major natural gas markets continue to moderate following the East’s cold and stormy weekend, March natural gas futures continued the move lower Tuesday, carving out a new low of $7.055 before going on to settle at $7.114, down 12.9 cents for the day.

Enron Corp.’s collapse created a tidal wave, stormy enough to cause a “sea change” in the industry, an energy consulting firm asserts in a new report. With the changes come the “traumatic” phases: first is shock, disbelief and denial, and the distancing by other companies. Soon after, the “wave of senior management head-rolling begins.” Then there is chaos — and that’s where the industry is now.

After seeing its corporate credit rating downgraded to “junk status” and its stock fall to 78 cents at one point last week, embattled Williams Cos. Inc. got some much-needed good news on Friday. First, it announced it had reached a deal in principle with California and other parties, including Oregon and Washington, to resolve all outstanding litigation/claims and the hotly disputed issue of refunds for power overcharges, and then FERC signaled it probably would not strip the company of its license to sell electricity at unregulated rates

“It figures, we got some winter weather after the winter wasover.” That was a Northeast gas buyer’s lament after a weekendblast of snow and cold sent regional citygates as high as the$3.60s (Transco Zone 6-NYC) Monday and had some Gulf Coast pointsedging over $3.