Trade

After plumbing to the lowest levels in over a month Monday, thefutures market rallied yesterday as scale down commercial buyingreceived unexpected support from local traders eager to reverseshort positions. The June contract finished at $2.200, up 2.4 centsfor the day.

After a hectic trading week that saw the June contract tradewithin a choppy, 15-cent range, traders tiptoed through Friday’snatural gas session. A late rally and retreat right before theclose of trading was the only real excitement in an otherwisefeatureless trading landscape. The June contract finished at$2.288, up 0.6 cents for the day and 1.5 cents for the week.

Adding to Monday’s gains the natural gas futures continuedhigher at Nymex yesterday as technical buying lifted the Junecontract in active trading. And with that 4.8-cent rally to $2.359,June was able to successfully fill in $2.31-33 daily chart gap andnotch its highest daily close in more than a year.

Tejon Ranch Co. signed an agreement with Enron Capital &Trade Resources Corp. to develop a power plant on its property atthe southernmost end of the San Joaquin Valley at the base of theTehachapi Mountains. The site is strategic because of the proximityof the California Aqueduct, existing major transmission lines, andthe Kern River-Mojave gas pipeline.

Controversial arrangements between pipelines and marketers -similar to the one awarding Dynegy Marketing and Trade sole controlof 1.3 Bcf/d of the remaining unsubscribed capacity on El PasoNatural Gas – could proliferate if FERC should uncap prices in theshort-term capacity market without first ensuring that adequatesafeguards are in place for pipeline customers, Californiaregulators warned.

Opening up the electric market to retail trade in Canada and theU.S. “will reinforce the trend towards greater use of natural gasin power generation resulting from the development of combinedcycle gas turbine power plants,” according to George Given, authorof a new study by the Canadian Energy Research Institute (CERI).

Adding to gains achieved in the Monday evening Access tradingsession, the May contract continued higher yesterday morning asbulls confidently bolstered their long positions. However, recentgains notched by natural gas have not come without a fight andTuesday was no different. After topping out at $2.17, the promptmonth reversed direction in the afternoon, nearly erasing itsadvance by the close. May finished at $2.136, up 0.8 cents on theday.

The Sempra Energy-KN Energy merger leaped its first hurdle last Monday, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared it under the Hart Scott Rodino Act. Shareholders from both companies as well as other federal and state regulatory authorities still need to approve the deal.

The Sempra Energy-KN Energy merger leaped its first hurdleMonday, as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) cleared it under theHart Scott Rodino Act. Shareholders from both companies as well asother federal and state regulatory authorities still need toapprove the deal.