NGI Staff Reports

How quickly the market can change! Just two days after finishinga bidweek that saw indexes climb 30 cents or more, traders tookcash prices down Thursday to levels looking much more like Augustindexes than those of September. It was a rare point that managedto avoid a double-digit decline, and some registered drops of 20cents or more.

The mid-$2.60s have been a pivotal level for natural gas futuresover the past year. Last November, the December contract managed totrade up to $2.64 — the high price during the “winter thatwasn’t” — before crashing more than a dollar to February lows.Then in July, many market watchers pointed to the August’s abilityto clear the $2.60 level as a harbinger of things to come. OnWednesday once again a line was drawn in the sand at the $2.65level. If the market stays above that level, we can retest thehighs, bull traders insisted. But a settlement below that levelcould spawn a round of selling, countered market bears.

Williams share prices dipped nearly 5% to $40.88/share yesterdayfollowing an announcement that the company expects third quarterearnings per share to be “substantially below” current Wall Streetestimates of 20 cents/share. The company said a change inaccounting standards and cooler than normal temperatures inSouthern California, its major power sales area, were to blame. Theannouncement was made partly in preparation for WilliamsCommunications’ initial public offering next month.

FERC staff has recommended that the full Commission approve anaccord under which El Paso Natural Gas has agreed to pay SouthernCalifornia Edison $32 million and make certain rate concessions topreserve its 1996 capacity-turnback settlement.

Invigorated by a strong second quarter, Texas-based MitchellEnergy said yesterday it is increasing its capital budget by $31million to total $167 million. Most of the increases will bededicated to escalating the company’s drilling program. With thisstepped-up activity, gas production is expected to reach the 250MMcf/d range by the end of the year. Mitchell said production atthat level would equal the company’s output it had in January,before gas prices fell dramatically.

CMS Energy Corp. dedicated its new headquarters building for CMSPanhandle Pipe Line Companies at 5444 Westheimer in Houston. About300 employees are moving to the new location.

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative of Glen Allen, VA, issoliciting bids for peaking power for its 12 distributioncooperatives in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia and alternativelyis considering construction of new generation stations.

The EIA said its “Short-Term Energy Outlook” will reflect netreductions in projections for energy demand due to the agency’sadoption of the National Oceanographic and AtmosphericAdministration’s (NOAA) weather premises of a three-decade longwarming trend. The report is set to be published Sept. 7.

Although the E&P software and services business is abillion-dollar-a-year industry, more than half of the world’sgeoscientists are not using currently available computer technologyto evaluate prospects, according to Bob Stevenson, president ofE&P software provider Geographix, a Houston-based subsidiary ofLandmark Graphics.