Uneventful

Feeding off bleak fundamentals, which include the final act of the uneventful 2010 Atlantic hurricane season, November natural gas futures on Friday recorded a new 12-month low, which could open the door to even lower values in the weeks ahead.

The tail end of the uneventful 2009 Gulf of Mexico (GOM) hurricane season was punctuated last week by the threat of Hurricane/Tropical Storm Ida, which sent some offshore operators scurrying to evacuate crews and shut in production in the eastern GOM. However, Ida’s impact was short-lived and traders mostly yawned.

After a mostly uneventful trading session that saw a slim 19-cent trading range, natural gas futures traders Tuesday afternoon pushed the January contract lower, keeping the recent directional trend intact. After putting in a low of $7.670, the prompt month closed at $7.685, down 12.1 cents on the day.

Feeling rather comfortable with the market’s recent $6.500 to $7.500 trading range, natural gas futures traders on Monday put in another uneventful session as support held once again. After trading within a slim 15 cent range between $6.560 and $6.710 on Monday, June natural gas ended up closing at $6.696, down 7.9 cents on the day.

Trading within a very slim 13-cent range, May natural gas futures on Wednesday turned in yet another uneventful session as market fundamentals remain quiet. After putting in a low of $6.770, the prompt month went on to settle at $6.808, down a dime on the day, as the market awaited fresh storage news Thursday morning.

In a shortened trading session in observation of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, October natural gas futures were mostly uneventful Friday as they were contained within a slim 18-cent trading range before settling at $11.263, down 8.4 cents on the day but 42.8 cents lower than the previous Friday’s close.

The cash market continued to eke out small gains Tuesday inquiet activity that was starting to remind some of last month’sgeneral lack of volatility. New averages ranged from flat to abouta nickel higher, with the varying increases scattered throughoutthe producing and market areas.

September debuted as the spot Nymex contract Thursday in afairly uneventful fashion, by first trading briefly higher, beforelight selling pushed the market down to settle at $1.906, a 2.7cent loss for the day. Traders continue to point to the currentdowntrend that “exerts its influence on this market at every turn,”as a reason for the move lower. “[Thursday] there was not muchimpetus to move higher or lower, but the mentality in this marketcontinues to be buy little dips and sell the rest of the time,” atrader offered.

Other than the screen-related drop in prices Wednesday, it’sbeen a pretty slow and uneventful bidweek, a number of GPI sourcesagreed. Things had settled down Thursday and June gas was tradingin about the same area as it had following the futures expiryWednesday, a Midwest-based marketer noted. However, another sourcesaid Southwest and Southern California border prices continued tosoften a bit further Thursday.