Swirling

Despite word that a possible tropical storm could be swirling in the Gulf of Mexico as early as Thursday, natural gas futures traders put downward pressure on the October contract in Wednesday’s trade. The prompt month recorded a low of $6.160 before closing out at $6.180, down 38.8 cents from Tuesday’s close.

With Hurricane Rita swirling through the Gulf of Mexico as a “strong hurricane” Friday afternoon, natural gas futures seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drummer. October natural gas explored lower during Friday’s regular session, settling at $12.324, down 46.6 cents on the day, but still $1.18 higher than the previous Friday’s close.

The principals aren’t talking, but rumors have been swirling in recent weeks about potential buy-out offers for portions of the increasingly valuable energy trading portion of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The latest was a report circulating Thursday that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. was presenting a proposal to the Nymex board to set up an initial public offering for the Exchange.

With fears swirling over the possible one-two punch to Gulf of Mexico production from Tropical Storms Cindy and Dennis, August natural gas futures found themselves 30.4 cents higher at $7.475 by the end of the regular trading session Tuesday.

Confirming rumors swirling around the industry last week, Duke Energy announced late Thursday that it is restructuring its Duke Energy North America (DENA) business, naming a new leadership team and consolidating the company’s trading and marketing operations in its Houston office.

Confirming rumors swirling around the industry Thursday, Duke Energy announced late in the afternoon that it is restructuring its Duke Energy North America (DENA) business, naming a new leadership team and consolidating the company’s trading and marketing operations in its Houston office.

Showing some tiredness with the continuing round of “emergency”declarations swirling throughout California’s energy markets, stateregulators Thursday refused to consider an eleventh-hour request bySouthern California Edison Co. to modify a legislatively-setpricing formula for renewable energy and qualifying facilities (QF)from which it buys power in lieu of the current unprecedentednatural gas prices. The payment formula is based on price indicesfor gas at the California-Arizona border, which saw spot prices atthe $36 to $41/Mcf level earlier this week.

Showing some tiredness with the continuing round of “emergency”declarations swirling throughout California’s energy markets, stateregulators Thursday refused to consider an eleventh-hour request bySouthern California Edison Co. to modify a legislatively-setpricing formula for renewable energy and qualifying facilities (QF)from which it buys power in lieu of the current unprecedentednatural gas prices. The payment formula is based on price indicesfor gas at the California-Arizona border, which saw spot prices atthe $36 to $41/Mcf level earlier this week.

Propelled by a tropical depression swirling in the Bay ofCampeche and concerns of yet another bullish storage report,natural gas futures spiraled higher yesterday as traders coveredshort positions. That buying interest pushed the September contractto $2.805 — the highest mark for a spot month contract sinceDecember of 1997 — before settling at $2.792 for the session.