BP Amoco for a third time in five years has won the annualbidding for California’s natural gas purchasing program for about120 state operated facilities, it was announced Thursday by thestate top purchasing agency, the California General ServicesDepartment, Sacramento, CA.

BP Amoco won contracts for both the northern (Pacific Gas andElectric) and southern (Southern California Gas) state facilities.Sempra Energy Trading is the current supplier of both contracts.

“We’re very pleased,” said Marshall Clark, the state’s gasbuying director, who noted that he received four bids to supply gasin the north and three in the south from among a list ofstate-qualified bidders.

Due to market uncertainties, the bidding last month was delayeduntil June 7 and the contracts are for nine months rather than theusual 12-month period. As such the usual total of about 14 Bcf involumes has been lowered to about 8.5 Bcf for the shortercontracts, Clark said.

“We’re hoping to see a gas market that is a lot friendlier inApril,” Clark said. “I am hoping we don’t see prices continue toclimb into the $5 range, although the July futures are still overfour dollars right now.”

California facilities are expecting fuel bill increases in therange of 50% to 70% for their next fiscal year, 2000-01, Clarksaid. The normal “saddle” for annual gas buying provided in Mayand June – after the winter heating load and before heavy summerair conditioning demands – has disappeared this year with gasprices climbing steadily this spring.

“We’ve come to the conclusion that the May-June period when wehave traditionally bought our gas is not the best time for usanymore,” said Clark, noting that the revised bids will cover theperiod of July 1 through March 31, 2001, giving the state the latewinter period as the time to bid its next gas deals following thisyear’s contracts.

California sought bids for indexed supply deals with none of thefloors and ceilings that have become common in its annual fuelcontracts.

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