Apparently

Storage companies in the Producing Region apparently started digging into base gas two weeks ago as their working storage levels ran dry, according to the American Gas Association’s report for the week ending March 2. The report confirmed the predictions of the Energy Information Administration, which said last week that storage levels will reach record lows this month and operators may have to dip into base gas to maintain deliveries (see related story this issue).

Storage companies in the Producing Region apparently starteddigging into base gas last week as their working storage levels randry, according to the American Gas Association’s report for theweek ending March 2. The report confirmed the predictions of theEnergy Information Administration, which said this week thatstorage levels will reach record lows this month and operators mayhave to dip into base gas to maintain deliveries (see Daily GPI,March 8).

El Paso Natural Gas apparently got the message when its lastopen season for 1.2 Bcf/d of firm transportation capacity attractedbids for 14.4 Bcf/d. The pipeline has announced an open season totest market interest in a mainline expansion and to satisfyregulatory concerns that something needs to be done to relieve theapparent capacity constraint at the California border.

The folks over at CMS Energy, Reliant Energy and Williams EnergyTrading apparently are the best around at smiling and saying “thankyou.” They came out on top of a new customer satisfaction rankingby Mastio & Co. that evaluates the largest gas marketingcompanies based on the results of 1,200 interviews with industrialcompanies, LDCs, power producers and other marketers.

The folks over at CMS Energy, Reliant Energy and Williams EnergyTrading apparently are the best around at smiling and saying “thankyou.” They came out on top of a new customer satisfaction rankingby Mastio & Co. that evaluates the largest gas marketingcompanies based on the results of 1,200 interviews with industrialcompanies, LDCs, power producers and other marketers.

Although the sky appears to be the limit for the current gasmarket, it apparently hasn’t affected the long-term optimism of theEnergy Information Administration. EIA actually predicts priceswill begin to decline in 2002 and basically flatten out through2020. That will occur, EIA believes, despite a massive increase ingas consumption to nearly 35 Tcf by 2020.

Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. apparently has been watching itsfair share of westerns as it seems the company has recently takenon a “Go West” theme. This is evidenced by the company’s plans tobuild 1,800 MW of new electricity generation on the left coast atan estimated development cost of $900 million.

Apparently the cash market was just taking a price-consolidationbreather for the weekend because it returned to a steep upwardtrack Monday. Only Florida citygates failed to rise by more than 30cents, and the highly volatile California and Pacific Northwestmarkets led the price charge with gains of 60 cents or more.

The vice chairman and COO of Enron Corp.’s international divisionhas resigned, two months after the chair and CEO of the division wasapparently forced out. Joseph W. Sutton will leave Enron Nov. 1 topursue other opportunities, said the company. His boss, Rebecca Mark,resigned in August (see Daily GPI, Aug. 28).