Another

BC Gas said it will file another application with the BritishColumbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) for its previously deniedSouthern Crossing Project and said a recent open season garneredinterest exceeding available capacity.

The July Nymex futures contract crept up another 2.9 cents tosettle Tuesday at $2.391, as hot weather and subsequent strong cashmarket prices continued to support the futures strip. July reacheda high of $2.41 on the day, which is just 2 cents shy of its nextresistance level. However, one source feels the spot month may havetrouble breaking that level in regular trading today since heexpects many traders to stay on the sidelines in anticipation ofthe latest AGA storage report, to be released this evening.

The Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline project last week crossedanother major milestone on its way toward bringing gas toNortheastern markets from Atlantic Canada for the first time inNovember 1999. FERC issued a final environmental impact statementon the 200-mile U.S. upstream portion of the system, concluding itwould have limited adverse environmental impact with therecommended mitigation.

Before its massive 700 MMcf/d expansion/extension project iseven put in place, Northern Border already is planning to fileanother expansion/extension that would provide shippers with 545MMcf/d of transportation capacity into Indiana markets.

Insignia/ESG, Inc. formed an alliance with Enron Energy Services(EES) to provide energy services for a 215 million-square-footportfolio of commercial and residential properties leased andmanaged by Insignia/ESG throughout the United States. Enron willanalyze energy consumption and cut costs through efficiencyenhancements. “This program will allow us to take advantage ofmarket opportunities that have arisen from deregulation of theenergy industry,” said Stephen B. Siegel, CEO of Insignia/ESG.

The June Nymex contract lost another 4.4 cents to $2.134 Monday,as traders continued to test just how long the spot month can holdabove major technical support at $2.11. June reached a low of$2.125 yesterday before last minute buying pushed the contract toits higher settle.

The June Nymex contract inched 2.4 cents higher to $2.159 onThursday, as traders entered a slight buying mode following the 8.0cent decline June turned in the previous session. “Today was a bigday in that the contract held technical support at $2.11,” ananalyst told GPI. Total estimated volume came in at 47,753contracts.

Disappointment with the development of retail gas and powermarket competition nationwide prompted another major player toannounce it is rethinking its plans and redirecting marketingefforts. EnergyOne LLC, the 50-50 marketing alliance of UtiliCorpUnited and Peco Energy, is being restructured in order to implementnew joint strategies tailored to deal with “a competitivemarketplace that refuses to show up,” the partners said yesterday.Their announcement follows by only a week Enron’s statement that itis ceasing residential marketing efforts in several states becausecompetition has been so slow to develop.

The gas industry might very well see another trading point inthe Garden City discharge facility of the Nautilus Pipeline. “We’vegot just about everybody connected that we initially planned to.We’re in negotiations with Columbia, and we’re finishing upnegotiations with Koch and ANR,” Nautilus President Bill Hastingstold NGI. Connections with Koch and ANR are expected this summer.Columbia also should be on line this summer, he said. A total ofseven pipeline interconnects are completed or planned right now.Currently, Louisiana Intrastate Gas, Acadian, Texas Gas, andCypress are connected. Trunkline has expressed interest, andTennessee also is in the vicinity of Garden City. “Sonat is alsovery interested, but the distance is prohibitive at the moment, andwe’re trying to work with that,” Hastings said. Ultimately, theNautilus terminus could see as many as 10 interconnects. Hastingswould not disclose Nautilus’ current throughput. “We havecommitments in the deep-water. We expect to be very close to fullin 2001. He alluded to gas processing capabilities but would notdiscuss plans.