Upswing

In spite of the sizzling heat wave that has descended upon the U.S. this week, natural gas futures on Monday departed from the last week’s upswing to explore lower price levels once again. August natural gas plummeted below the psychological $6 support level in Monday’s regular session to settle at $5.783, down a whopping 56.4 cents from Friday.

With a reported upswing in fourth quarter 2005 profits, although still down for the full year, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. announced late Tuesday it has entered into a confidentiality agreement with NorthWestern Corp., the neighboring South Dakota-based utility holding company it has been hotly pursuing for a merger.

With the current sharp upswing in wholesale natural gas prices and the continuing prospect of further increases this heating season, the American Gas Association (AGA) on Tuesday said it plans to ask the Bush administration to open up areas of the federal Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) that are off-limits to oil and gas producers.

The number of junior exploration and production companies and conventional energy trusts appears to be on the upswing, according to a survey by a Calgary-based consultant of 83 publicly traded juniors and 31 Western Canadian trusts.

The number of junior exploration and production companies and conventional energy trusts appears to be on the upswing, according to a survey by a Calgary-based consultant of 83 publicly traded juniors and 31 Western Canadian trusts.

After showing strength for a majority of Monday’s session, May natural gas futures appeared to be ready to continue Friday’s upswing. However, met with some long liquidation and influence from the petroleum futures complex, the prompt month began to sell off in the afternoon, settling down 4.2 cents at $7.153, just above the $7.14 low of the day.

Voluntary natural gas price surveys have come a long way from the depths of the market crisis in 2002 as both the volume of trading and the reporting of trades has greatly increased in 2003, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) said Wednesday in a report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Voluntary natural gas price surveys have come a long way from the depths of the market crisis in 2002 as both the volume of trading and the reporting of trades has greatly increased in 2003, Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) said Wednesday in a report to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Oil and gas drilling in North America appears to be on the upswing, according to oil and gas industry service companies that keep track of offshore and onshore statistics. Offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico was up in July more than 5% over a year ago, according to GlobalSantaFe Corp.; Baker Hughes. Inc. found that the number of rigs actively exploring domestically has increased since the beginning of the month; and the Canadian service sector reports a summer drilling boom is more than making up for a slow spring.