Underlying

In a surprising show of strength considering the weak underlying cash prices and a bearish storage report (7 Bcf injection) announced Thursday morning, natural gas futures rallied back to the mid-$5.20s late Thursday morning. However, buying dried up for the expiring April contract and sellers were waiting to push it lower at the closing bell. At $5.146, April completed its tenure as prompt month up 4.9 cents on the day, but down 30% since becoming prompt month. The new prompt month, May, surged 9.3 cents to close at $5.24.

While many energy companies have been cowering behind ugly third quarter financial results, Entergy Corp. on Wednesday stood out in the crowd with substantially higher earnings. In fact, operational earnings per share were up 21%, setting a new company record for third quarter.

All of the leading indicators for offshore construction activity point to “much higher levels of pipelay, derrick and diving activity,” and underlying fundamentals driving the offshore construction industry continue to be “very robust,” according to Raymond James Energy’s “Stat of the Week” for last week.

All of the leading indicators for offshore construction activity point to “much higher levels of pipelay, derrick and diving activity,” and underlying fundamentals driving the offshore construction industry continue to be “very robust,” according to Raymond James Energy “Stat of the Week.”

Gas analysts at Deutsche Bank have come to the conclusion that a”structural shift” has occurred in the supply and demand underlyingthe gas market, setting the stage for gas prices to hold theircurrent ground at more than $2.50 for the next two years.

FERC last week gave the go-ahead for a mostly compressionupgrade that would add 315,218 Dth/d to Columbia Gulf Transmission,restoring its system to its original certificated capacity leveland then some.