Technical

Plagued by an array of bearish fundamental and technical factors, the natural gas futures market continued a slow, methodical grind lower Tuesday as calculated scale-down, end-user buying matched up with commercial and speculative selling activity. After an early rally failed to attract much support, the September contract shuffled lower throughout the session to finish at $5.373, down a half-cent for the day.

FERC “in all likelihood” will hold a technical conference to discuss the results of the surveys on the price-reporting activity of energy companies and the Commission’s interpretation of the results, as well as ask industry to identify the next liquidity issue that the agency should address, said the head of FERC’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI) last Wednesday.

FERC “in all likelihood” will hold a technical conference to discuss the results of the surveys on the price-reporting activity of energy companies and the Commission’s interpretation of the results, as well as ask industry to identify the next liquidity issue that the agency should address, said the head of FERC’s Office of Market Oversight and Investigations (OMOI) Wednesday.

With little consensus from either technical or fundamental factors, natural gas future prices chopped erratically sideways Tuesday within a 12-cent trading range. After gapping lower at the open in reaction to bearish short-term weather forecasts, the prompt month was bid steadily higher throughout much of the session as traders grew increasingly confident that Thursday’s storage data will be price-friendly.

For the third-straight trading session, natural gas futures tumbled early, but quickly stabilized Monday as traders continue to view the market with apprehension. On one side is the market’s seasonal tendency to rally in September; on the other is the bearish storage and weather outlook.

After probing perilously close to a technical cliff at the $4.55 level Tuesday, the natural gas futures market worked its way quietly higher Wednesday as traders appeared reluctant to be short heading into another potentially bullish storage report Thursday. By virtue its higher-high, higher-low, 5.5-cent gain and $4.694 close, the October contract was able to post a positive day on the charts, potentially paving the way for more upward consolidation following the 10:30 a.m. ET inventory release.

Natural gas storage proposals are alive and well in Arizona, but when one of them is going to turn into an actual project is still anybody’s guess, following last Tuesday’s (Aug. 26) Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff conference in Phoenix. FERC staff promised a “report” on the meeting, but nothing more tangible emerged.

A panel of industry representatives told federal energy regulators at a Denver technical conference Wednesday that natural gas supplies from throughout North America as well as new imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Alaskan Arctic supplies will be needed in the long term to adequately meet growing demand. There are also plenty of supplies on federal lands if drilling in those geographic areas is ever opened, they said.

A panel of industry representatives told federal energy regulators at a Denver technical conference Wednesday that natural gas supplies from throughout North America as well as new imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and Alaskan Arctic supplies will be needed in the long term future to adequately meet growing demand. There are also plenty of supplies on federal lands if drilling in those geographic areas are ever opened, they said.