Activity

Southern Co., the largest electric generator in the country,still plans to hire 1,000 more people before the end of the year,the company said yesterday. Many of the job openings are in theunregulated sector. So far in 1999, the company has filled 2,000vacant or new positions.

Calpine Corp. jumped into the center of the energy industryM&A activity last week, as it made bids to purchase Houston,TX-based Sheridan Energy and acquire 80% of Cogeneration Corp. ofAmerica (CGCA). Both mergers are expected to be completed by theend of the year.

Continuing a flurry of activity since its proposed merger withSempra Energy fell through (See related story), KN Energy was at itagain Friday as its marketing affiliate, KN Marketing, announced itwas selected to provide gas and fuel management services to a 600MW power plant in Elwood, IL. KN will supply 10 Bcf/year to thisplant at an undisclosed price. The Colorado-based company will alsomanage the plant’s fuel service, including supplying, balancing andmanaging storage and transportation.

Activity in the natural gas pit at NYMEX has beenuncharacteristically quiet recently with low volatility and sub-5cent trading ranges the rule rather than the exception. In fact,the only real excitement in the past couple of weeks came Mondaywhen the July contract bounced 3 cents in a late rally. But eventhat was quickly dismissed by many traders who considered itnothing more than a freak, expiration-day anomaly in an otherwisesubdued market. Enter the August contract, which wasted little timeyesterday in moving dramatically higher in a rush of speculativeand commercial buying. The newly crowned prompt month finished up7.6 cents for the session at $2.400.

CMS Gas Transmission and Storage Co. continued its activitybinge Wednesday as its subsidiary CMS Continental Natural Gaspurchased Anson Gas Marketing and the Midcontinent Gas Pipelinefrom Chesapeake Energy Marketing. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed.

June bidweek activity heightened considerably Thursday astraders sprinted toward the finish line, either trying to wind upeverything Thursday or leave only a few tail-end deals to completetoday. A marketer who made six Chicago citygate deals in a verytight range on either side of $2.30 said June prices were justbarely higher despite a gain of more than a nickel in the JulyHenry Hub futures contract. He thought the lack of volatility wasdue to many people leaving early for a long weekend. If moretraders were still around and working there would be more input andbreadth to the ranges.

Some of the “most pronounced” turnback activity for long-termfirm capacity can be expected to occur this year, next year and in2004, according to an analysis of the pipeline transportationmarket issued by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) lastweek.

The drop in gas load that usually accompanies a weekendreduction of business activity failed to dampen the cash market’sbullishness Friday. Though a few points (El Paso-Permian andTrunkline-South Texas) eked out only penny upticks and CIG and Wahawere essentially flat, most markets achieved gains of 3-7 cents.Influencing factors were unchanged from earlier in the week,sources said: Western cold, Southern heat, a higher screen andelectric utilities using gas in peaking units while many nuclearand coal plants are down for refueling or other maintenance.

Citing such factors as customer cooperation and recent storageactivity in March, ANR said it was able to rescind a Februarynotice requiring that interruptible storage customers under the MBSand DDS rate schedules draw their accounts down to a zero balanceby today. However, the pipeline added, due to abnormally highinventory balances remaining and overall operational concerns, itmust continue to limit interruptible injections “for theforeseeable future.”