weather

Citing fully used capacity, warmer weather in its market area and lower overall linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued Tuesday an Overage Alert Day notice with 10% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

Energy stocks fared fairly well yesterday — i.e. losses were moderate — during the first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange following the terrorist attacks last Tuesday that left a gaping hole in New York City’s financial district. There were only a few companies that escaped red ink, but the across-the-board losses for the most part stayed in the moderate range.

Prices fell Thursday in the wake of a large storage injection report and a continuing dearth of air conditioning load. Volumes and trading activity remained minimal in the absence of futures guidance, and sources reported that the feelings of grief and numbness from the attacks against New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon were slow in dissipating.

In a session strikingly similar to last Friday, natural gas futures opened higher, only to shuffle lower throughout the morning Tuesday as traders elected to look past the hottest temperatures yet this summer to focus on the likelihood of bearish storage news to be released this afternoon. After gapping higher at the open, the September contract was unable to attract much in the way of follow-through buying. As a result, the prompt month tumbled 5.6 cents lower yesterday to take back gains achieved Monday and to close even with Friday’s settle at $2.971.

Citing warmer weather in its market area and lower overall linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice Tuesday with 15% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

Despite some hints of moderating weather in a couple of areas, this week’s heat-based rally in the cash market continued Tuesday with some extra support from a dime-plus futures gain. A slight majority of points registered rises in the teens, but there was a big increase from Monday in the number of upticks between a nickel and a dime, indicating a slowdown of upward momentum.

Buoyed by two distinct buying surges, natural gas futures shuffled higher Tuesday as commercial futures traders reacted to rising temperatures across most areas of the country and strong demand in the nearby physical market. While losses Monday were spread out almost equally across the entire natural gas strip, Tuesday’s gains were front-loaded with the August contract receiving a 12.9-cent boost to $3.282. By comparison, the 12-month strip advanced just 9.6 cents to close at $3.715.

Citing warmer weather in its market area and lower overall linepack, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice with 5% tolerance for negative imbalances Tuesday. FGT bases its decision on whether to extend an OFO on a review of the situation prior to the start of each gas day.

It was getting hot just about everywhere Tuesday except in the Upper Plains. The rising air conditioning load had a moderate price-boosting effect in eastern markets, but virtually none at all in the West.