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Direct Energy Services LLC said it will offer combined natural gas and electricity service in New York later this year. The company is currently supplying power to customers in New York, including New York City.

Maintenance on Laguna Station’s #3 unit, previously scheduled for March 7-9, has been postponed to April, El Paso said. The ongoing force majeure involving repair of the #2 unit at Belen Station will continue until further notice, reducing San Juan Crossover capacity by 35 MMcf/d from a base capacity of 650 MMcf/d, the pipeline added.

At least one source likened the cash market to a magician. Despite mostly moderate weather fundamentals, bearish storage conditions and a 24.3-cent screen drop on the previous day, it was able to pull a mostly higher-priced “rabbit” out of its hat Tuesday.

Rebounding from Monday’s 24.3-cent decline, April natural gas futures on Tuesday climbed as high as $6.750 before settling at $6.678, up 13.1 cents for the day. Despite the bounce, market experts said the level of bearish fundamentals in the market right now would make any sort of significant rally difficult.

This year will see a “noticeable easing” in spot natural gas prices, leading to an annual average decline in the Henry Hub price of about 10%, but the respite is expected to be short-lived, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its Short-Term Energy Outlook for March.

Former Enron Corp. CFO Andrew Fastow testified Tuesday that the company, under then-President Jeffrey Skilling’s direction, used off-the-book partnerships to illegally revise earnings beginning in 1999.

The Senate late Tuesday approved by voice vote a measure that shifts $1 billion in funds that were set aside to aid low-income energy in fiscal year 2007 to the current fiscal year.

While mirroring Friday’s slim trading range, April natural gas futures traded at a significantly lower level on Monday. After trading down in Sunday’s Access session, April natural gas opened on Monday at $6.610, put in a high of $6.620 soon after, and set its sights lower for the remainder of the day. The prompt-month contract pushed as low as $6.470 before rebounding later in the afternoon to settle at $6.547, down 24.3 cents from Friday.

The push and pull of high gas storage levels and competing fuel prices on natural gas prices probably means a $6/MMBtu floor for the market unless the spring and summer are exceptionally mild, according to consultant Stephen Smith of Stephen Smith & Associates. Smith said even given the current major gas storage surplus, gas prices are pretty low compared to competing fuels and unlikely to venture much lower.