Turned

The founding cornerstone of regulation in Canada’s chief energysupply province has turned out to be alive and well — andoperating at the expense of natural gas producers.

Although you couldn’t tell from rapidly depleting gas storagelevels or lofty gas prices, this winter turned out to be thewarmest on record for the United States, according to a report bythe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And it was thethird winter in a row in which record warmth cooked the UnitedStates.

Although you couldn’t tell from rapidly depleting gas storagelevels or lofty gas prices, this winter turned out to be thewarmest on record for the United States, according to a report bythe National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. And it was thethird winter in a row in which record warmth cooked the UnitedStates.

Rebounding from Thursday’s heavily predicted, albeit modestsell-off, natural gas futures turned higher Friday as tradersjumped at the opportunity to increase their length while the marketwas trading off fresh highs. After opening lower and quicklymatching Thursday’s $2.75 low, the April contract rumbled 4.2 centshigher to close at $2.825, just below its $2.83 high for the dayand only pennies less than the $2.865 life-of-contract high put inThursday. Estimated volume was solid, with 53,424 contractschanging hands.

Prices responded accordingly Tuesday as just about everythingturned bullish for the spot gas market – chilly to very coldweather almost everywhere, rising futures in three importantcategories (gas, heating oil and crude oil), and expectations of alarge withdrawal volume in this afternoon’s storage report.

FERC last week approved Transwestern Pipeline’s proposals tobuild a new Gallup compressor station on the San Juan lateral nearits mainline and to install cooling equipment at two existingcompressor stations also on the lateral. Both measures are designedto alleviate on-going constraints on the lateral and bring thepipeline up to its certificated capacity level of 1.09 Bcf/d fordelivery to California.

The cash market turned in a decidedly mixed performance Monday.In general, quotes at many western points were up a nickel or so,while the East ranged from essentially flat to down as much as adime. A marketer had a simple explanation: “The West had a littlemore weather (cooling load) than the East did.” A screen drop of 2cents only had the barest negative influence on cash, sources said.

For the first time in the last eight quarters, Chesapeake EnergyCorp. of Oklahoma City, OK, turned a profit. The improvement was inspite of decreased production.

Cash prices turned in mixed results Wednesday, with easternpoints mostly eking out small gains while the West tended to beflat to off as much as 3 cents in the Rockies and at the two mainNorthern California price points.