Seemingly

A pair of liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal proposals on seemingly different trajectories — one ascending, the other trying to break its fall — eye separate hearings in their respective locales of Oregon and Southern California later this month.

In a seemingly improbable reversal of fortune, cash prices staged a rally at all points Tuesday, with only MRT failing to realize a double-digit gain. Except in parts of the heating up West, weather fundamentals remained weak and prior-trading-day screen support was negative.

Seemingly unaffected by the significant strength in the petroleum sector, natural gas futures on Monday pushed lower as the tropics remained quiet and temperatures began to moderate in the U.S. After trading below the psychological $7 level in Sunday’s overnight session, September natural gas traded within a slim 21-cent range during Monday’s regular session before settling at $6.907, down 33.9 cents on the day.

The seemingly solid agreement among a mix of liberal/moderate Democrats and conservative/moderate Republicans on the newly configured five-member appointed California Public Utilities Commission last Thursday was jarred loose and split into a majority of market-based-solution advocates and a minority of command-and-control supporters over the creation of a telecommunications “Consumer Bill of Rights.” The measure was six years in the making and has gone through several iterations in the past 18 months.

Even with some offshore production cutbacks seemingly imminent, cash prices dropped at nearly every point Thursday. Traders cited the previous day’s screen weakness and moderating weather trends either already under way or in the forecast as reasons for the softness. One also noted that Tropical Storm Arlene was expected to have relatively little impact on Gulf Coast supplies.

Despite the release of seemingly neutral storage data (46 Bcf withdrawal), the natural gas futures market turned lower Thursday as traders decided to test the bottom end of the market’s recent trading band. Although the selling was steady throughout the session, the downward momentum was not enough to demote spot month prices below support at $5.60. April closed for the session at $5.631, down 9.1 cents for the day.

Confounded by seemingly contradictory weather forecasts, natural gas futures traders chose to side with what they knew Monday as they pressured the market lower in sympathy with bearish supply news issued last week. February futures finished at $5.727, down 33.2 cents for the day.

The cash market again seemingly defied some of the laws of economic gravity Tuesday by rising about 20 cents or more at most points. And once again several traders were baffled at the continuing price strength in the face of pitifully few visible means of physical support.

Within days after Enron Corp. filed the largest bankruptcy in history, the focus of the seemingly never-ending financial nightmare shifted last week from the company’s headquarters in Houston, TX, and Wall Street to the political epicenter in Washington DC, with lawmakers on Capitol Hill quickly scheduling hearings to find out “how this happened” and the Department of Labor opening an investigation into the possible mishandling of retirement funds of Enron employees. This action comes on top of the ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the embattled energy trader.