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posted at 4:13 p.m. PDT Wednesday, September 6, 2000

Natural Gas crosses barrier BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

While crude oil was rising to a decade high amid political rumblings and urgent appeals to OPEC, natural gas prices zoomed relatively quietly past $5 per 1,000 cubic feet for the first time ever Wednesday.

Low storage injection numbers were deemed responsible for the 2 percent jump that produced the latest in a series of all-time highs on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In other commodity markets, soybeans tumbled and orange juice futures sank to a three-year low.

Fears of supply shortages next winter were exacerbated when the American Gas Association announced a comparatively small storage injection of 42 billion cubic feet for the week ended last Friday.

Coupled with crude oil stockpiles hanging around their lowest levels since 1976, the latest development had energy analysts bracing for the worst.

``We really have the makings of an energy crisis here, for this winter,'' said John Kilduff, senior vice president of risk management for Fimat USA Inc. in New York, citing ``bad news for natural gas, oil and heating oil.''

OPEC's reluctance to raise production substantially has had a ripple effect across the spectrum of energy products.

For natural gas, the total in storage in the United States is now 401 billion cubic feet less than a year ago. That will leave supplies way behind average when the winter heating season starts.

The grim supply scenario sent the price of natural gas for October delivery as high as $5.08 per 1,000 cubic feet before settling at $5.071.

Analysts said the price is likely to come down in profit-taking on Thursday -- a prediction that appeared to be strengthened by a slight decline in after-hours electronic trading late Wednesday.

October crude, meanwhile, finished up $1.07 at $34.90 a barrel -- highest since November 1990 -- reflecting tight supplies and tight nerves just four days ahead of an OPEC meeting in Vienna, Austria.

Also, October heating oil rose 1.69 cent to 99.66 cents a gallon and October unleaded gasoline rose 3.09 cents to 99.80 cents a gallon.

In London, October Brent crude rose $1.30 to a 10-year high of $34.28 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange.

http://www.sjmercury.com/business/bizwire/docs/375278l.htm

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 06, 2000

Answers

It seems like the bad news just continues to mount up. And, worse yet, it seems to be accelerating.

-- Loner (loner@bigfoot.com), September 06, 2000.

I keep looking for good news but it is very elusive.

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 06, 2000.

This is stunningly bad news. The price of natural gas is taking off like a rocket. Because of environmental considerations, so much new power plant planning is built around gas-fired operations, thus intensifying the crisis.

Woe is us. Hold on to your seats, everybody. Looks to me like the ride is going to be rough.

-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), September 06, 2000.

I live high on a windy hill. I wonder if I should start shopping for windmill power.

-- LillyLP (lillyLP@aol.com), September 07, 2000.

Panic is as panic does.

Thanks, Martin, for keeping us up to date on all this forthcoming misery. At least we are one step ahead of the herd in knowledge.

-- R2D2 (r2d2@earthend.net), September 07, 2000.

This is the worst news I've seen here in quite awhile. I had dropped to only checking this board about three times a week. Starting tomorrow, my every day addiction will be back.

-- QMan (qman@c-zone.net), September 07, 2000.

A little quick math here proves out all the gloom on this thread. $2 just eight months ago? Now $5? Hmmm! A 150% jump in price in just two-thirds of a year.

Staggering! When the full impact of this hits the consumer the finger pointing and angry expletives will be everywhere.

-- Wellesley (wellesley@freeport.net), September 07, 2000.

Quick, where is the panic button? I think it's time to push it.

-- Nancy7 (nancy7@Hotmail.com), September 07, 2000.

As we read above panic is as panic does. I can't quite figure out what that means, but, I guess I had better move toward some kind of emergency cold weather preps. It's kind of like y2k all over again.

-- Chance (fruitloops@Hotmail.com), September 07, 2000.

I like the spirit of this group. Not a Doubting Thomas in the bunch.

How did we all end up here together?

-- Wayward (wayward@webtv.net), September 07, 2000.

i'm here every day. I was a 9 for y2k, and I feel like I have to redeem myself. Due to my pessimistic nature--my brother calls me a born loser--I still keep looking for the dark side.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), September 07, 2000.

The more I think about it, this is the start of something big - real big.

-- Billiver (billiver@aol.com), September 07, 2000.

On the individual level I plan on swapping out my 9 year old natural gas water heater for an electric WH. That way my natural gas costs will be diluted by a utility company rather than taking the stiff increases passed on by a natural gas company. I live in the desert and if I had a spare $2000 or so I'd get a solar water heater. That's what makes any home repair so expensive right now. All the trades are busy building like crazy. A plumber is ultra expensive to hire for the home project right now (until our energy crisis causes a recession, I'll just have to wait).

-- Guy Daley (guydaley@bwn.net), September 07, 2000.