Talk

Psychological support at $7 held up once again on Tuesday for January natural gas futures, but the talk among traders seemed to indicate that the last stand could be right around the corner as temperatures are likely to warm up in the latter part of December. The prompt-month contract closed Tuesday at $7.085, up 5.3 cents from Monday.

Most of the talk out of the Rocky Mountains recently has been about running natural gas pipelines west-to-east, but Spectra Energy’s announcement Thursday of plans to build a new Bronco Pipeline to under-served western markets, followed on another one just two days earlier of a proposed expansion and open season by Kern River Transmission of its pipeline to California.

With the industry is still awash in talk surrounding the Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) recent natural gas trading losses of C$350-450 million (US$313.70-403.33 million), the aftershocks and tremors continue to be felt by others in the industry, including Valhalla, NY-based brokerage Optionable Inc., which reportedly has been linked to the bank. Some market watchers in their analysis of the event have gone as far as calling the natural gas market a “Catch-22,” where you get in just as much trouble by hedging as not hedging.

With the industry is still awash in talk surrounding the Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) recent natural gas trading losses of C$350-450 million (US$313.70-403.33 million), the aftershocks and tremors continue to be felt by others in the industry (see related story), including Valhalla, NY-based brokerage Optionable Inc., which reportedly has been linked to the bank. Some market watchers in their analysis of the event have gone as far as calling the natural gas market a “Catch-22,” where you get in just as much trouble by hedging as not hedging.

The combined market capitalization of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and its latest acquisition targets — Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources Inc. — comes to nearly $41 billion, almost double that of Anadarko alone and rivaling EnCana Corp. at $42.28 billion.

With record natural gas storage inventories and a lack of winter weather (until last week), some may think it’s not the time to talk about expanding North American storage facilities. But those in the know would beg to differ.

With record natural gas storage inventories and a lack of winter weather (until this week), some may not think it’s the time to talk about expanding North American storage facilities. But those in the know would beg to differ.

Just a day after sources had virtually nothing to talk about but how little gas demand there was, some more gas demand apparently showed up. The cash market recorded increases at virtually all points Wednesday (one was essentially flat) as blizzard conditions in the Rockies and Plains states were giving a boost to heating load.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the department will take a “fresh look” at the flawed 1998 and 1999 deepwater Gulf of Mexico leases that are costing the federal government billions of dollars in lost royalties.