Turning

Marking the turning in the seasons from injection to withdrawal, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported Thursday that 9 Bcf was pulled out of underground natural gas storage for the week ended Nov. 9. With the withdrawal well within industry expectations, natural gas futures continued its recent path of probing the downside, recording a low of $7.650 before closing out at $7.700, down 13.5 cents from Wednesday.

The turning of the tap on the Rockies Express (REX)-West pipeline, expected Jan. 1, won’t come a minute too soon for Questar Corp., whose exploration and production (E&P) business shut in about 4.4 Bcfe (net) of unhedged Rockies gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) production in response to low regional market prices during the third quarter.

The turning of the tap on the Rockies Express (REX)-West pipeline, expected Jan. 1, won’t come a minute too soon for Questar Corp., whose exploration and production (E&P) business shut in about 4.4 Bcfe (net) of unhedged Rockies gas and natural gas liquids (NGL) production in response to low regional market prices during the third quarter.

With the 2006-2007 winter now mostly in the rear-view mirror, traders and meteorologists alike are turning their attention to what kind of temperatures spring will bring to the United States. According to Andover, MA-based WSI Corp., the April through June forecast is expected to average warmer than normal in all locations except for the Pacific Coast states, which could start the natural gas storage injection season sooner than normal, but push electricity loads high enough in June to be bullish for power prices in the Midwest markets.

With the 2006-2007 winter now mostly in the rear-view mirror, traders and meteorologists alike are turning their attention to what kind of temperatures spring will bring to the United States. According to Andover, MA-based WSI Corp., the April through June forecast is expected to average warmer than normal in all locations except for the Pacific Coast states, which could start the natural gas storage injection season sooner than normal, but push electricity loads high enough in June to be bullish for power prices in the Midwest markets.

With a 31.9-cent futures spike on Monday as support in addition to this week’s spread of power generation load due to higher temperatures, cash prices continued their run-up Tuesday.

Maryland electricity customers may be turning off their lights and lowering their air conditioning this summer following an announcement by the Public Service Commission of Maryland (PSC) last week that some electric bills could jump by as much as 72% due in part to increased fuel prices, which has hiked the costs to utilities of buying electricity for retail distribution.

Abandoned by members of Congress, who left a lot of low-income energy users out in the cold as they headed for their own home holiday fires, natural gas end users are turning to federal agencies to stem the tide of high prices.

The industrial sector of the U. S. economy is responding to historically high natural gas prices by doing more hedging, stepping up conservation efforts, turning to alternative energy and generally “playing at the margin,” said a representative for large industrial customers at the LDC Forum in Los Angeles Wednesday