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Some 11th-hour life has been pumped back into a proposal forallowing gas distribution competition in an industrialized part ofthe East San Francisco Bay. Two members of the five-memberCalifornia Public Utilities Commission have proposed an alternativeto the Western Gas Resources pipeline proposal, which would servecustomers inside Pacific Gas & Electric’s franchise territory.The CPUC is scheduled to take up competing approaches when it meetsNov. 4 in San Francisco.

Much like the rest of the majors, Phillips Petroleum is back ontrack in terms of strong financial results with $221 million in netincome in the third quarter, up from $46 million for the sameperiod last year. But CEO Jim Mulva said the sale of its midstreamGPM business, and possible “joint venturing” of its chemicals,refining and marketing operations are still on. The GPM sale isexpected to take place before the end of the year.

After a negative opening and a quick check lower, natural gasfutures battled back Tuesday, as traders gleaned support fromstrength in nearby physical market prices and technical buying inout months. But despite yesterday’s positive price direction, theNovember contract never fully recovered from early its earlysluggishness and finished off 0.5 cents at $3.011. Meanwhile,December and January contracts closed up 2.6 cents and 2.1 cents at$3.148 and $3.158 respectively.

It had appeared Thursday the tumble back down for cash pricesmight get just as steep as the climb upward had been earlier lastweek. But in Friday’s trading for the weekend, the downward slopegot considerably gentler as few points other than the Southwestbasins fell more than a nickel, and many declines were milder thanthat. In fact, Northern Natural’s demarc and Ventura points sawsmall upticks due to freezing temperatures in parts of the pipe’smarket area, and Chicago citygates also rose, probably fromforecasts of the Upper Plains chill moving eastward.

After resisting for nearly two trading sessions the promptcontract finally caved to selling pressure late Tuesday as localtraders liquidated the last of their positions. On that sour notethe October natural gas futures contract completed its tenure asprompt month yesterday by slipping 7.2 cents to $2.56. Estimatedvolume was robust as 122,906 contracts changed hands.

A broad coalition of natural gas and electric trade groups haveasked FERC to reconsider a July rehearing decision that prompted itto purge any reference to immediate relief from its final rule oncomplaint procedures.

Although the E&P software and services business is abillion-dollar-a-year industry, more than half of the world’sgeoscientists are not using currently available computer technologyto evaluate prospects, according to Bob Stevenson, president ofE&P software provider Geographix, a Houston-based subsidiary ofLandmark Graphics.

Neither the interstate pipelines nor gas producers wereparticularly enamored with FERC’s latest attempt to create a morebalanced, lighter-handed system for regulating gas pipelines on theOuter Continental Shelf (OCS). They both agree the Commission fellshort of its goal in the July proposed rulemaking.

Neither the interstate pipelines nor gas producers wereparticularly enamored of FERC’s latest attempt to create a morebalanced, lighter-handed system for regulating gas pipelines on theOuter Continental Shelf (OCS). They both agree the Commission fellshort of its goal in the July proposed rulemaking.