Ignoring

Citing Northeast market need and perhaps ignoring the track record of other recent projects in the area, TransCanada Corp. and Shell US Gas & Power LLC announced plans for a deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal about 11 miles off the coast of Connecticut and nine miles offshore Long Island in Long Island Sound.

Citing Northeast market need and perhaps ignoring the track record of other recent projects in the area, TransCanada Corp. and Shell US Gas & Power LLC announced plans for a deepwater liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal about 11 miles off the coast of Connecticut and nine miles offshore Long Island in Long Island Sound.

Natural gas futures were down modestly in midday trading as traders took a breather following a hectic three days of volatile price action in which the November contract spiked more than 90 cents. Not even the weekly release of fresh natural gas storage inventory data, featuring a 64 Bcf injection, could tilt the scales in either bulls’ or bears’ direction, leaving the market to trade mostly sideways Thursday morning.

Unimpressed by the paths of the first two significant storms of the season, natural gas futures on Tuesday lacked the ability to rebound from Monday’s 29.9-cent drop. The prompt month settled up three-tenths of a penny at $5.816 after trading within a $5.77-5.855 range on the day.

Ignoring moderating weather conditions and softer energy futures, the cash market managed generally moderate gains at a majority of points Wednesday, with San Juan and Rockies prices seeing the largest advances. Several flat to slightly lower points were scattered among the price mix.

The pattern got broken. For a change cash prices did not follow the previous afternoon’s screen higher, which had been the norm in previous weeks whenever there was a significant change in futures after the morning’s cash deals were complete. Instead, most points were flat to about a dime lower Tuesday.

Ignoring protests from some shareholders who want a complete separation from Dynegy Inc., ChevronTexaco Corp. Tuesday offered its strongest public endorsement to date, writing down a total of $631 million in second-quarter earnings related to its stake in the marketer, and reiterating that all of its U.S. natural gas agreements remain in place and will remain in place for at least the near term. ChevronTexaco’s profits were down 78% compared to the second quarter a year ago, and part of the loss related to a $531 million special-item charge for the company’s investment in Dynegy’s common and preferred stock to its estimated fair value as of June 30, 2002, and $100 million related to its share of Dynegy’s own writedown.

Ignoring protests from some shareholders who want a complete separation from Dynegy Inc., ChevronTexaco Corp. Tuesday offered its strongest public endorsement to date, writing down a total of $631 million in second-quarter earnings related to its stake in the marketer, and reiterating that all of its U.S. natural gas agreements remain in place and will remain in place for at least the near term. ChevronTexaco’s profits were down 78% compared to the second quarter a year ago, and part of the loss related to a $531 million special-item charge for the company’s investment in Dynegy’s common and preferred stock to its estimated fair value as of June 30, 2002, and $100 million related to its share of Dynegy’s own writedown.

The cash market was up to its old tricks again Monday, ignoring a general lack of hot-weather support and a significantly weaker screen to post moderate gains. Most of the upticks were a dime or less. Rockies points, which had seen the largest declines going into the weekend, rebounded more strongly than others, but several Northeast citygates also saw dime-plus increases.