Theory

With a parade of storms coming off the coast of Africa at a frenetic pace, one theory is that natural gas futures traders — much like they did the previous Friday — took to covering their short positions ahead of the weekend to limit their risk (see Daily GPI, Sept. 7). However, another leading idea is that futures have hit a seasonal bottom and are ready to explore higher prices.

Canada’s storm-prone center of fossil-fuel production readily accepts the theory that the climate is changing, but highly educated Albertans stop far short of accepting the full global warming gospel even when their anonymity is guaranteed. Only about one in three Alberta earth scientists and engineers believe the culprit behind climate change has been identified, a new poll of the professions reported.

Canada’s storm-prone center of fossil-fuel production readily accepts the theory that the climate is changing, but highly educated Albertans stop far short of accepting the full global warming gospel even when their anonymity is guaranteed. Only about one in three Alberta earth scientists and engineers believe the culprit behind climate change has been identified, a new poll of the professions reported.

Lending more credibility to the theory that the current natural gas futures market is range-bound, the December contract on Tuesday gained 26.5 cents to close at $7.755. The rebound followed Monday’s bearish action when the prompt month slipped 39.4 cents.