Surprisingly

Not surprisingly, the modest rally of the previous two days came to an end Thursday as generally moderate weather, prior-day futures weakness and a demand-killing hurricane ganged up to cause spot prices to decline across the board.

The Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has the greatest renewable energy potential of all the offshore regions, while the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Alaska not surprisingly are believed to hold the largest trove of undiscovered technically recoverable resources (UTRR) of oil and natural gas, according to a joint report by two Interior Department agencies that was released last Thursday.

The Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) has the greatest renewable energy potential of all the offshore regions, while the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and Alaska not surprisingly are believed to hold the largest trove of undiscovered technically recoverable resources (UTRR) of oil and natural gas, according to a joint report by two Interior Department agencies that was released Thursday.

Not surprisingly on the day after storage news got even more bearish than before and caused a plunge of 38.3 cents by April futures, cash numbers fell at all points Friday. Except for the Rockies, Western Canada and a few sections of the Midwest, freezing lows were continuing to disappear from the overall forecast. The usual weekend decline of industrial load was a slightly negative factor in Friday’s market.

Not surprisingly, the cash market fell by mostly large amounts at all points Friday, feeling negative pressure from relatively little appreciable cooling load outside the desert Southwest, another prior-day screen drop, the lack of any new tropical storm activity and the extra loss of industrial demand over a holiday weekend. The storage situation also remained bearish despite Thursday’s report of a 48 Bcf build in the previous week falling a little below expectations.

Some recent gas supply forecasts have been surprisingly bearish, showing domestic dry gas production growth at the same time that LNG imports are soaring. But Ron Denhardt of Strategic Energy & Economic Research said he’s taking more of a “wait and see” approach.

Some recent gas supply forecasts have been surprisingly bearish, showing domestic dry gas production growth at the same time that LNG imports are soaring. But Ron Denhardt of Strategic Energy & Economic Research said he’s taking more of a “wait and see” approach.

The cash market closed out a surprisingly firm week in the face of weak fundamentals with mostly small gains at a majority of points Friday. Scattered instances of flat to mildly lower numbers were thrown into the mix; CenterPoint West stood out with a loss of nearly 15 cents. Upticks tended to be limited to single digits, although more than half a dozen points rose a dime or slightly more.

Bullied by a surprisingly strong blast of winter weather, the natural gas futures market turned abruptly higher Monday as waves of fund and local short covering entered the trading pit. A stronger open set the tone and by 12:30 p.m. EST the January contract had carved out a new six-week continuation-chart high at $5.38.