Absolutely

James Yardley, president of El Paso Pipeline Group, told a Houston audience Monday “it’s an absolutely terrific time to be in our business.” But while times may be good for natural gas pipeliners, they are not without their challenges, which Yardley enumerated.

Suggestions that Mirant temporarily shutdown a 482 MW power plant in suburban Virginia for economic reasons “are absolutely false,” Mirant CEO Marce Fuller said last Thursday. “This is peak season for all power companies, and having this plant shut down is costing us money.”

To absolutely no one’s surprise, all points recorded major declines in swing trading for the weekend. Friday’s market had a lot going against it: the screen plunge a day earlier that was linked to the latest record-setting storage injection; the disappearance of very hot weather almost everywhere except for the desert Southwest and inland California; and the normal industrial load drop that accompanies a weekend.

For several sources there were absolutely no ifs, ands or buts about it: Wednesday’s spikes of about 30 cents to a little more than 40 cents throughout eastern markets were caused by “storm hype,” pure and simple. Although Pacific Northwest and California points participated to a lesser degree in the overall bull market, most of the Rockies and San Juan Basin numbers were moderately softer.

El Paso Corp. Chairman William Wise said Wednesday he was “absolutely convinced” FERC will overturn the ALJ ruling that found El Paso Natural Gas guilty of skirting the Commission’s affiliate standards when awarding transportation capacity on its system. But even if the agency doesn’t do this, he said it was unlikely that the company would be slapped with a major penalty.

An “absolutely incredible” 9 to 12 Bcf/d reduction in naturalgas demand over the last six weeks, led by industrial users whohave either switched or shut down production, has been the primemover in the recent decline in storage withdrawals, according to areport by Raymond James Energy analysts. A continued rout ofindustrials could bring with it a significant reduction in overallindustrial output and a recession.

An “absolutely incredible” 9 to 12 Bcf/d reduction in naturalgas demand over the last six weeks, led by industrial users whohave either switched or shut down production, has been the primemover in the recent decline in storage withdrawals, according to areport by Raymond James Energy analysts. A continued rout ofindustrials could bring with it a significant reduction in overallindustrial output and a recession.

To the surprise of absolutely no one, cash prices plunged acrossthe board Tuesday. It was an easy call to make considering theresidual effect of Monday afternoon’s steep screen dive and warmingweather trends that are likely to get even warmer next week,sources said.

Favorable rulings on the MarketLink and Independence Pipelineprojects at the Dec. 15 FERC meeting are “absolutely critical topreserve any realistic opportunity” for the proposed facilities tobe built and operating by the targeted November 2000 deadline, saysa senior official at Williams Gas Pipelines – Transco.