Once

Nymex futures once again were unable to buck the downtrend andcontinued to slip lower yesterday in quiet trade. The July Nymexcontract opened below $2 before breaking through long-term supportat $1.97 only to claw its way back up near the close. July settledat $1.976, down 5.1 cents for the day. In doing so, July posted thelowest level of any prompt contract since January.

The FERC majority voted yesterday to once again submerge itselfinto the “familiar, yet very rocky waters” of pipeline regulationon the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Specifically, it initiated anotice of inquiry (NOI) into alternatives to the Commission’spresent method of exercising its jurisdiction over offshorepipelines.

Trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange was once againsubdued on Tuesday, as many traders seemed to stand to thesidelines in anticipation of the release of the AGA storage reportlater this evening. Amid what trading did get accomplished, theJune contract inched 1.5 cents higher to settle the day at $2.149.

The AGA storage report proved to be an anchor on natural gasfutures prices yet again on Wednesday, as the spot June contractfell 5.2 cents to settle at $2.204. The latest report came in at100 Bcf worth of injections, which increases the surplus versuslast year by 30 Bcf to 403 Bcf. Total estimated volume came in at59,231.

The cash market once again ignored spreading mild weatherWednesday and posted price gains that were most often around anickel. Although the central and northern Atlantic Coast regionswere still feeling some late-winter chill, most of the rest of thenation ranged from spring-like to somewhat summerish. So the pricestrength again derived from the screen, sources concluded. It onlyemphasises, one said, that “this market never really has been doingwhat the weather indicates it should this winter.”

The April Nymex contract once again failed to break above majorresistance at $2.19 on Tuesday, and as a result, the spot monthfinished the day down 3.2 cents to $2.137. Total estimated volumecame in at 34,371.