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Continuing the downward momentum from Friday, the July natural gas futures contract dropped 18.1 cents on Monday to close at $6.339. Rumors of a break from trading with crude futures appeared false for the time being, as July crude fell as well, closing $1.12 lower on the day at $37.63.

With the middle-of-the-road natural gas storage report unable to exert any influence on the natural gas futures market, the newly-minted prompt month was left with no other choice than to follow big brother crude’s lead lower in Thursday trading.

Unable to find a partner with liquidity and stature to boost its own, Dynegy Inc. on Wednesday redrew its entire business plan with the news that it would close its marketing and trading unit in the United States, Canada and Europe. The restructuring, which includes the loss of long-time COO Steve Bergstrom, changes the former market-maker into a more conservative entity, with four autonomous business units: power generation, natural gas liquids, regulated energy delivery and communication.

Citing operational difficulties, Dominion said it is currently unable to deliver gas to Columbia Gas via the Coronado Pipeline. Dominion pool operators must cut nominations on Coronado to zero effective Friday until further notice. Pool operators will be notified when normal deliveries can resume.

Losses of 30 cents or more at a couple of Northeast citygates topped overall softness in pricing Friday. Colder weather trends in some areas obviously didn’t perk up demand enough to overcome mild conditions in much of the East, the residual drag of Thursday’s 12-cent screen drop and the typical slump in industrial load over a weekend.

Natural gas futures finished higher Thursday as bear traders were unable to use another larger-than-expected storage injection (32 Bcf) to their advantage. Though selling was seen immediately following the 10:30 a.m. EST storage report, it failed to press the market below what has become very stubborn support in the low to mid $4.60s. The market rebounded as a result, led by the December contract, which climbed back above unchanged and eked out a 5.8-cent gain to finish at $4.797.

After watching patiently as natural gas futures prices failed to break below support over the past week, bulls traders got their turn Tuesday. Sensing the shifting tide, locals were the first to rear their horns as they hunted for buy stops on the way up. Commercial players added to the buying, which gained popularity throughout the session and was therefore heaviest heading into settlement.

Unlike the previous week, there was no major rebound Monday from plunging prices going into the weekend. But new softness was capped at a quarter’s decline, and only a few points outside the Rockies and Northeast fell by 20 cents or more. A couple of scattered moderate gains were recorded, and most of the rest of the market ranged from flat to down 18 cents.

Due to unexpected operational difficulties, Dominion said early Friday it was unable to move shut-in gas onto the Equitrans system at the Copley and West Union meters that day as previously planned (see Daily GPI, Nov. 7). It is imperative that producers on the “wet” gathering system behind Dominion’s Hastings Extraction Plant in West Virginia, where an explosion and fire occurred Oct. 31, remain shut in until the gas is able to be transferred to Equitrans, Dominion said. Affected customers were urged to check the bulletin board regularly for further updates.