Toes

FERC last Thursday assured the California Coastal Commission (CCC) that it was not stepping on the agency’s toes by asserting “exclusive jurisdiction” over Sound Energy Solution’s (SES) planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal for the Port of Long Beach, CA.

In a frenetic trading session that had even the most seasonedtraders on their toes, gas futures gapped higher on the open onlyto crumble lower in two distinct selling waves yesterday. Incontrast to Wednesday session that saw almost uniform increases,Thursday’s price action for the 12-month strip was inconsistent,with losses in the out months outpacing the 7.7-cent declineregistered in the prompt month. The March contract finished at$6.158.

Access trading kept traders on their toes late last week. Aftera more than 7-cent rally in last Wednesday’s computer-only tradingsession, the June contract doubled back Thursday evening, slippingmore than 5 cents lower before Friday’s open. And the selling wouldnot stop there as bears continued their push toward lower pricesthroughout the trading session Friday. June finished down 8.6 centsfor the day at $2.253.

Kansas, a significant natural gas producing state, is stickingits toes in the water of retail gas competition with a notice ofinquiry (NOI) from the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC), “thegoal of which is to explore whether extending restructuring to allretail consumers is in the public interest. We also wish to exploreother regulatory alternatives which may bring benefits to smallerretail gas consumers.”

Producing state Kansas is sticking its toes in the water ofretail gas competition with a notice of inquiry (NOI) from theKansas Corporation Commission (KCC), “the goal of which is toexplore whether extending restructuring to all retail consumers isin the public interest. We also wish to explore other regulatoryalternatives which may bring benefits to smaller retail gasconsumers.”