Again

The cash market shrugged off what many considered a bearishstorage withdrawal report and maintained what has become February’sstatus quo Thursday: flat pricing with mostly tight ranges. Sourceswere dismayed to admit their general expectation Wednesdayafternoon of falling prices Thursday was off the mark. “Nothingseems to be moving this market in any direction,” a marketer in theWest said.

After being limited to a moribund 2.5-cent range Wednesday, theMarch futures contract snapped back to life yesterday as bulls andbears took turns exerting their influence on the market, which ledto a 7.5-cent trading range. Thursday’s 3-cent setback andsubsequent $1.746 settle would be considered an almost non-eventamid typical winter volatility, but the move was a welcome changeto traders who have grown weary of the slight moves and tighttrading ranges over the past month. Those traders reactedaccordingly, burgeoning estimated volume to 86,227.

TPC Corp. is changing hands yet again. This time NIPSCOIndustries subsidiary NI Energy Services is buying Houston-basedTPC for $132.5 million from PacifiCorp. The deal also involves apayment for working capital to be determined at closing. NI EnergyServices also gets PacifiCorp’s 66% interest in Market Hub PartnersLP (MHP)

Believing in the saying that “if at first you don’t succeed, tryagain,” El Paso began a new open season Friday to solicit interestin firm service agreements to move gas on an expansion of theBondad Line in the San Juan Basin. A previous attempt at a Bondadexpansion ultimately broke down after FERC rejected some of thetariff provisions last year, leading the primary expansion shipperto withdraw from the project and FERC to vacate its projectcertification (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7, 1998; Oct. 19, 1998; Dec. 11,1998; and Jan. 18, 1999).

Believing in the saying that “if at first you don’t succeed, tryagain,” El Paso began a new open season Friday to solicit interestin firm service agreements to move gas on an expansion of theBondad Line in San Juan Basin. A previous attempt at a Bondadexpansion ultimately broke down after FERC rejected some of thetariff provisions last year, leading the primary expansion shipperto withdraw from the project and FERC to vacate its projectcertification (see NGI, Sept. 7, 1998; Oct. 19, 1998; Dec. 14,1998; and Jan. 18, 1999).

Cash prices again showed little movement Thursday. The maindifference from the previous day was that small drops dominatedinstead of small increases. Thursday’s biggest fall of nearly adime came in Transco Zone 6-New York City.

Another dull day in the gas market. That’s how sources tended toview trading yet again Wednesday as flat prices prevailed, withtiny gains tending to outweigh a few tiny declines. Unlike Tuesday,when traders could point to the screen’s uptick as a motivator forcash firmness, Wednesday’s fall of about a nickel in the Henry Hubfutures contract appeared to have no impact on the cash market. Acontinuing lack of significant weather demand left sources graspingfor ways to explain the relative strength of cash prices.

The natural gas futures market tumbled lower last Friday morningwhen a lower open was greeted with steady, unchecked sellingpressure. But after getting caught snoozing early in the day, bullsfought back by bidding up the March contract above $1.80 in choppymidday activity. And by 2:30 in the afternoon many sources feltthat the market would close out the week quietly-right? Wrong-lateposition squaring and market-on-close sell orders had the last sayFriday as they deposited the prompt month contract to its $1.777settle. Estimated volume was 67,482.

After briefly testing resistance in the $2.00 area Wednesdaymorning, the futures market continued its journey lower as traderswere able to look past the short-term bullish impacts of coldweather and associated pipeline operational flow orders to focus onthe longer-term implications of storage and forecasts calling forwarmer weather. The February contract finished 4.4-cents lower at$1.931.