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Sonat implemented an OFO Type 6 for short imbalances effective Monday until further notice. Tiered penalties apply to customers falling short of scheduled receipts by 2% or 200 dekatherms, whichever is greater. Those running long imbalances will not be penalized.

Sonat is implementing an OFO Type 6 Tuesday. Tiered penalties ranging from $1/Dth to $15/Dth will apply to net short imbalances on its contiguous system exceeding a tolerance of 2% or 200 dekatherms, whichever is less. In addition, Sonat notified shippers in several system groups Sunday that it would be allocating/limiting interruptible capacity starting either Monday or Tuesday, depending on the group. See the bulletin board for details.

Sonat is implementing an OFO Type 6 Tuesday. Tiered penalties ranging from $1/Dth to $15/Dth will apply to net short imbalances on its contiguous system exceeding a tolerance of 2% or 200 dekatherms, whichever is less. In addition, Sonat notified shippers in several system groups Sunday that it would be allocating/limiting interruptible capacity starting either Monday or Tuesday, depending on the group. See the bulletin board for details.

Williams and BC Hydro applied to federal regulators on both sides of the Canadian border Tuesday to build a 94 MMcf/d natural gas transmission pipeline in the state of Washington, underwater in the Georgia Strait and on Vancouver Island in Canada to serve power plants in the area. With sufficient regulatory approvals, construction of the $159 million project could start in the fall of 2002 with operation of the pipeline beginning a year later.

Consumers and utilities continued to butt heads in Californialast week over how to deal with almost $5 billion in uncollectedrevenues by the state’s three major investor-owned utilities in thewake of this summer’s wholesale electricity price spikes. Withretail rates frozen the utilities have only collected a portion ofthe added cost of power since May. Consumer activists in SanFrancisco and San Diego last Tuesday launched a campaign againstthe utilities seeking pledges from political candidates throughoutthe state to promise to oppose the utilities’ attempts to raiseconsumer rates to recover their costs.

“Following the screen” obviously didn’t apply Tuesday as thecash market’s mostly flat performance was a far cry from the8.1-cent drop in the Henry Hub futures contract for June. But, as aGulf Coast trader noted, a substantial portion of the screensoftness occurred after cash had finished trading for the day, andto him that means it’s a safe bet to expect a decline in cashprices today.

In another much-anticipated decision, FERC yesterday proposed anexpedited complaint process that would apply uniformly to all ofthe energy sectors that it regulates – natural gas pipelines,electric utilities, oil pipelines and hydroelectric concerns. Thecomplaint proposal, which was outlined in a notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR), represented an “amalgam” of the best proposalsof the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the PipelineCustomer Coalition and the Electric Industry Dispute ResolutionWorking Group, said Chairman James Hoecker.

At first glance Monday was one of those not-too-often cases inwhich “following the screen” did not apply to the cash market. Butas a Northeastern buyer pointed out, an initially flat futuresshowing allowed many physical-gas markets to post gains of a nickelor so, and by the time the screen got around to diving by about 7cents, it was too late to affect a lot of cash deals. But late cashtrading did reflect the weakness in the Nymex pit, said a producerwho found late Henry Hub and Katy sales down 3-4 cents fromearly-morning levels.