Ingredients

Two critical ingredients will come together within days — or weeks, at most — for the Canadian entry in the arctic natural gas pipeline race, the federal minister of indian affairs and northern development predicted Monday. Robert Nault said he expects a land claim agreement with the last holdout among the First Nations of the NorthWest Territories, the Deh Cho. He also described a deal for one-third native ownership of the Mackenzie Valley project as done except for final details.

All the ingredients were right for the futures market to spirallower yesterday-a softer cash market, continued bearish weatherforecasts, and an abundance of ready-to-expire March $1.65 and$1.70 put options. But for some reason, all of those factors werenot enough to inspire a sustained round of selling, leaving theMarch contract to chop to either side of unchanged before finishingwith a 0.6-cent gain to $1.71.

All the ingredients were present for natural gas futures tocontinue higher yesterday: momentum from last week’s advances,single digit temperatures in much of the West and Midwest and achart gap that was “just waiting to be filled.” But all of thosefactors, plus the official start of winter, were no match for theoverabundance of stored gas. After a brief attempt at last week’shighs the market came under strong selling pressure on Monday. Theprompt January contract slipped 12.7 cents to settle at $1.947.