Push

Major influences converged to push swing prices lower by about a nickel to just over 20 cents at nearly all points Wednesday: the screen followed up Tuesday afternoon’s decline with even greater expiration-day weakness, and mild late-summer weather virtually everywhere outside the southern edge of the U.S. could no longer be ignored as it had been earlier in the week.

In what would certainly be a blow in at least the short term for UBS Warburg Energy’s push to revive Enron Corp.’s trading arm, some of the former trading powerhouse’s top traders are soon expected to leave. UBS confirmed last week that at least six of Enron’s former key wholesale energy traders, including the leading natural gas trader and the chief of the options desk, have turned down offers to stay, although most who were offered jobs are staying with UBS.

In what would certainly be a blow in at least the short term for UBS Warburg Energy’s push to revive Enron Corp.’s trading arm, some of the former trading powerhouse’s top traders are soon expected to leave. UBS confirmed that at least six of Enron’s former key wholesale energy traders, including the leading natural gas trader and the chief of the options desk, have turned down offers to stay, although most who were offered jobs are staying with UBS.

Amid updated weather forecasts confirming the warming trend that is set to engulf the entire Eastern half of the nation this week, natural gas futures dove lower Tuesday, as traders returned from the holiday weekend and promptly liquidated long positions initiated early last week. February took the selling squarely on the chin, gapping lower at the open bell, and not once looking back as it came just one tick away from notching a new contract low at $2.094. It closed with an even 13-cent decline at $2.106.

Energy legislation will come to a head in the Senate this week, as Republicans are expected to try to attach the House comprehensive energy bill (H.R. 4) to the economic-stimulus package that is scheduled for debate on the floor, according to Capitol Hill observers.

Prices fell Thursday in the wake of a large storage injection report and a continuing dearth of air conditioning load. Volumes and trading activity remained minimal in the absence of futures guidance, and sources reported that the feelings of grief and numbness from the attacks against New York City’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon were slow in dissipating.

After checking higher yesterday morning, natural gas futures made another push to the upside early in the afternoon as traders digested the latest natural gas storage supply data. The October contract received the biggest boost, shuffling 6.1 cents higher to close at $2.420.

In a part of California known for big oil and big agricultural interests, and the big bucks that go along with both, deep drilling is getting a huge boost in the southwestern parts of oil/gas-rich San Joaquin Valley west and northwest of Bakersfield with the announcement that a consortium of major E&P talent became the third group to begin a deep drilling project in the area.

In the first of sporadic teleconferenced “Afternoons with Archie,” Conoco CEO Archie Dunham last Thursday said he finds current natural gas prices “disconcerting,” but was pleased about last week’s electric demand on the East Coast and added he continues to remain “very bullish” on natural gas in the immediate and near terms. Dunham, who had no planned agenda during the 20-minute call, also said that the company’s second quarter earnings had made him “cautiously optimistic” about the rest of the year.