Striking

The gas market, particularly in the Northeast, got a little scare last week when striking tugboat workers shut down liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from Trinidad, the largest LNG exporter to the United States, for two days.

The gas market, particularly in the Northeast, got a little scare last week when striking tugboat workers shut down liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments from Trinidad, the largest LNG exporter to the United States, for two days.

Striking back at a host of critics, Sen. Pete Domenici, (R-NM) told his colleagues Thursday that killing the energy bill would “kill the fuel diversity efforts, the drive to produce alternative sources of fuel for America.”

Natural gas futures are within striking distance of new 10-week highs, after traders bid up the market Thursday morning on price-constructive technical factors. After filling in the nagging $2.51-55 chart gap on Wednesday, the April contract rallied at the close to notch a new eight week high at $2.585. However, that was only the beginning, because the contract gapped higher in Thursday morning, as buy-stops initiated a wave of computer-generated fund buying. Light profit-taking at the closing bell shifted the prompt month off its $2.82 high. It closed 19 cents stronger at $2.756 amid extraordinary estimated volume of 158,816.

After dropping 14.2 cents and coming within striking distance of its 40-day moving average at $2.25 on Monday, March natural gas futures rebounded yesterday as last-minute position squaring by fund and local traders was enough to promote the contract back above the $2.40 mark in the final minutes before the contract’s expiry. March’s final settlement, which is computed by averaging the last 30 minutes of trading, was $2.388, up 8.1 cents for the session and 32.1 cents higher than where it was when it began its tenure as prompt month back on Jan. 29. By comparison, the buying in the out months was more conservative, leaving the 12-month strip with a modest 3.4-cent gain to finish at $2.73.

With a striking new drilling success confirming that thelong-awaited time has arrived for making a start on developingnatural gas in the Canadian North, natives and authorities thereare laying out welcome mats.

For municipal gas buyers, the stars are lined up just right for striking a deal on supply. Low interest rates on municipal bonds and low gas prices have led to a rash of long-term prepaid transactions.