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In advance of whatever liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies it might send to the United States from the vast Shtokman gas field in the Barents Sea, Russia is sending mixed signals.

Call it a turnaround or call it a market correction, but whatever it is, the energy trading industry has pulled itself out of the mud and now is scrubbing off the dirt — but it may take a long soak in the tub, a panel of energy merchant veterans said Thursday.

Call it a turnaround or call it a market correction, but whatever it is, the energy trading industry has pulled itself out of the mud and now is scrubbing off the dirt — but it may take a long soak in the tub, a panel of energy merchant veterans said Thursday.

Hype or not, Tropical Storm Claudette was the primary driver behind further moderate advances in the cash market Wednesday. Cold fronts were causing much of the Midwest and Northeast to lose some of the air conditioning load that had kept the regions sweltering earlier in the week, but major heat continued to dominate the weather picture in the West (outside the Pacific Northwest and California coast) and South. The screen wavered on either side of flat before eking out a meager gain of 1.7 cents on the day, and thus had little new influence on cash prices, one trader said.

Williams Cos. CEO Steve Malcolm said Friday the company is “prepared to do whatever it takes” to improve the company’s balance sheet, including selling more assets if the opportunity arises. However, he said the sale of the Kern River Gas Transmission system to a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary — and an additional investment in Williams by the Warren Buffett-led company — affords it the opportunity to grow the business in the way it needs to grow.

Williams Cos. CEO Steve Malcolm said Friday the company is “prepared to do whatever it takes” to improve the company’s balance sheet, including selling more assets if the opportunity arises. However, he said the sale of the Kern River Gas Transmission system (see Daily GPI, March 8) now will put the company in a cash neutral position, affording it the opportunity to grow the business in the way it needs to grow.

Whatever among several possible reasons was responsible for Tuesday’s sharp price upticks was losing its power Wednesday. The market was retreating across the board in movements ranging from flat to more than a dime lower. However, Algonquin citygates were the only points with declines exceeding a dime; other drops were mostly around a nickel or less. Sources could detect no signs of another rally being in the cards.

The way one observer sees it, Oklahoma Natural Gas and ONEOK GasTransportation can ask for whatever they want in their jointrestructuring filing with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission(OCC); they won’t get everything. “It’s a pretty bold proposal. Ican tell you, ONG’s not going to get what they filed for. If you’reasking for something, you might as well ask for the moon,” said thesource, who asked to be anonymous.