NGI Staff Reports

What had seemed like a mildly softer early aftermarket in swingdeals done Tuesday got much weaker Wednesday. Influenced greatly bya falling screen but also by a continuing lack of positivefundamentals, nearly all points were down a dime or more. NorthernCalifornia was a rare bastion of relative market strength in theU.S. Malin and the PG&E citygate dropped only about a nickel asPG&E repeated last week’s unusual action of issuing alow-inventory OFO on a summer weekday.

Futures got crushed again yesterday. After settling at $2.737,down 8.8 cents on the day, the October contract plunged to the mid$2.60s during the after hours Nymex Access trading session,following what was perceived to be a very bearish gas storagereport by the American Gas Association. Just one week ago, theOctober contract reached a high of $3.15/MMBtu.

As the list of planned new natural gas-fired power plants inCalifornia lengthens, state officials have begun to survey thedeliverability of resources to fuel those plants.

With 87% of its reserves in gas, Chesapeake Energy Corp. CEOAubrey McClendon said his company is “a natural gas company onpurpose.” McClendon told attendees at the PLS Dealmakers prospectconference in Houston Wednesday that both the supply and demandsides look very bright for gas producers, especially relative tooil.

The Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NE) started anopen season yesterday asking for capacity requests from buyersintent on using M&NE’s interconnect with Algonquin’s proposedHubLine project at Salem, MA. Requests will be received throughSept. 30. Maritimes’ Canadian affiliate, Maritimes & NortheastPipeline Limited Partnership, will contemporaneously conduct anopen season for its pipeline in Canada, the company said.

CMS Energy moved a step closer to its liquefied natural gas(LNG) goals yesterday, as its energy marketing arm, CMS Marketing,Services and Trading, (CMS-MST) purchased three LNG shipments fromRas Laffin LNG Co. Limited (Rasgas) in Qatar. The three cargoes,carrying a combined 8.1 Bcf, will be delivered in November andDecember of this year and in February of 2000 to CMS’ LNG complexin Lake Charles, LA, then fed into CMS Trunkline’s interstatepipeline system. The overall cost for the shipments was notreleased.

Southwest Power LLC, an entity owned partly by Enron bought LasVegas Cogeneration LP and SUNCO Ltd. from The United Co. Las VegasCogeneration owns a 50 MW combined cycle power plant in North LasVegas. Designated as a qualifying facility under the PublicUtilities Regulatory Policy Act of 1978, the plant delivers powerunder contract to Nevada Power while SUNCO serves as the plant’sthermal host.

Sonat Exploration Co. of Houston, a wholly owned subsidiary ofSonat Inc. announced that it will close its Tyler, TX, and OklahomaCity offices on or shortly after Oct. 31. The action is part of aplan to improve the efficiency of the company’s exploration andproduction business. Following the office closures, SonatExploration will conduct all operations out of its main office inHouston.

The number of U.S. consumers and small businesses “choosing tohave a choice” in their electric and gas service has doubled sinceJan. 1 to 3 million and is expected to reach 4 million by the endof the century, according to a report by Cambridge Energy ResearchAssociates (CERA).