Markets

Natural gas forwards markets wiped out last week’s gains, plunging some 16 cents on average between Oct. 14 and 20, as the market continues to wait for cold weather to arrive and grapples with record storage inventories.

The World Bank raised its forecast for 2017 crude oil prices from $53/bbl to $55/bbl Thursday, citing a potential production limits agreed to by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Residents near the Southern California Gas Co. Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage fieldon Sunday will mark the one-year anniversary of the four-month storage well leak that disrupted their lives this year, calling on the state to shut down the now-closed facility permanently. “Thousands of residents are still sick from the lingering effects of the toxic blowout, and Aliso has had four major leaks since the affected well was capped,” said a spokesperson for Food & Water Watchand the Save Porter Ranchresidents’ organization, both of which want the 86 Bcf, 3,600-acre facility shut down permanently. SoCalGas and state and federal energy officials have said the facility eventually can be safely operated again, and consider it an important source of electric and gas reliability in the region.

The physical natural gas market almost turned schizophrenic Friday, with large gains and losses the rule.

Weekly natural gas trading for the week ending Oct. 21 was highly variable, and in a broad sense the weekly advance in the November contract for the week ended Oct. 14 of 9.2 cents did carryover into cash trading as the NGI National Spot Gas Average did rise 4 cents to $2.71. Traders in Texas, South Louisiana, and the Southeast might be inclined to disagree over the predictive power of the futures market as their regions lost ground.

Natural gas futures lost ground Thursday morning before and after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a storage injection that was greater than what traders and analysts were anticipating.

Natural gas and power markets are ‘cautiously optimistic’ as they approach the upcoming winter, according to the 2016-2017 Winter Energy Market Assessment released Thursday by FERC’s Office of Enforcement (OE).

Physical natural gas traders having no desire to subject their deals to the often volatile effects of the 10:30 am EDT release of storage data by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) may have set the stage for a broad market shift lower by both futures and cash markets.

The 86 Bcf capacity Aliso Canyon underground natural gas storage field on the northern edge of Los Angeles is vital to the region’s energy reliability and can be safely reopened, according to federal officials heading an interagency nationwide task force.