Concede

July natural gas futures retreated Tuesday as weather bulls were forced to concede to moderating temperatures in eastern consuming markets and crude oil tumbled. At the close of floor trading July natural gas fell 16.9 cents to $12.435 and August shed 16.8 cents to $12.516. July crude oil skidded $3.04 to $131.31.

Analysts at Raymond James & Associates aren’t quite ready to pack up their bull horns and nose rings, but they had to concede Monday that the domestic gas supply picture is improving. To them that simply means the domestic gas production decline isn’t as steep as they previously projected.

Failing to concede any wrongdoing on its part, Northern Natural last week entered into a stipulation and consent agreement with FERC to resolve the agency’s concerns about a $450 million loan that the regulated pipeline secured to help bail out its then-parent, Enron Corp., just before Enron sank into bankruptcy last year. Northern Natural signed the agreement with FERC Chief Accountant John Delaware and the Office of General Counsel’s Market Oversight and Enforcement section.

Although still very much intact, the uptrend which has carriedprices higher for much of the year suffered a defeat yesterday, astraders liquidated positions on the open to create a potentiallybearish technical scenario. The January contract took the sell-offsquarely on the chin, tumbling $1.00 lower to evoke a lock-limitdown trading halt at about 10:15 a.m. (ET) Tuesday. Afterre-opening 15 minutes later with new two-dollar limits in eitherdirection, the market continued lower to finish at $8.145, down$1.268 for the session.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners(NARUC) and Wyoming and Colorado regulators last week urged theFERC majority to throw in the towel in its effort to re-cast itsauthority as it relates to the Hinshaw amendment.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners(NARUC) and Colorado regulators earlier this week urged the FERCmajority to throw in the towel in its effort to re-cast itsauthority under the Hinshaw amendment.