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One trader suggested facetiously that the cash market should be arrested on vagrancy charges because it has no visible means of support. Prices continued to go up Wednesday, in most cases even more strongly than the day before, despite a dying tropical storm and further degradation of positive weather fundamentals. Most gains were in the teens, with most of those below a dime concentrated in the West.

Because of market area rain that eased a low-linepack condition, Florida Gas Transmission lifted Wednesday an Overage Alert Day notice that had declared Monday. An El Paso low-linepack OFO remained in effect.

Saying its overall linepack was low because Tropical Storm Barry had “significantly affected receipt gas” and market area demand was strong, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day for Monday’s gas day with a 10% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

Transocean Sedco Forex Inc. revealed yesterday that Marathon Oil has decided to back out of an 18-month drilling deal because it believes Transocean hasn’t lived up to its end of the bargain. The contract is for Transocean’s recently constructed, ultra-deepwater semisubmersible Cajun Express drill ship. Marathon gave notice it wants out of the deal apparently in response to incidents of downtime relating to equipment failures. Transocean said it strongly disputes that Marathon has the right to terminate the contract and intends to “vigorously pursue all available remedies.”

UtiliCorp United’s first quarter results are expected to be 15-17% higher than 2000, mostly because of the strong performance of its energy merchant business, Aquila Inc., and the contribution of its Alberta electric distribution network. UtiliCorp only acquired the Alberta assets last year, and expects to spin off Aquila as early as this week (see Daily GPI, Feb. 8, 2000; Dec. 14, 2000).

Because of production receipts upstream of its Logansport (LA)facilities continuing to exceed capacity, Sonat issued a Type 5 OFOthat took effect Saturday. Volumes delivered into the system thatexceed 104% of scheduled quantities will be penalized $15/Dth. TheOFO affects 25 Logansport Field points and 24 Joaquin Field points.

Northern Border Partners L.P. says it’s moving quickly to scoopup Midwestern Gas Transmission from El Paso Corp. because itbelieves the pipeline is destined to become strategically moreimportant as an outlet for western Canadian gas and eventuallyAlaskan gas, as well as a key supplier for gas-fired powergeneration plants in the Midwest.

Northern Border Partners L.P. is moving quickly to scoop upMidwestern Gas Transmission from El Paso Corp. because it believesthe pipeline is destined to become strategically more important asan outlet for western Canadian gas and eventually Alaskan gas, aswell as a key supplier for generation plants in the Midwest.

Because El Paso’s Eunice Natural Gas Processing Plant justupstream of the TGT compressor station in Acadia, LA, is not fullyprocessing the gas stream available this winter (like others inSouth Louisiana), TGT said it is having operational problems due todownstream gas having excessive liquids. It notified customers thatgas received at any point, including points upstream of the EunicePlant, must not have a hydrocarbon dewpoint in excess of 10 degreesFahrenheit. Receipts not meeting that specification may be rejectedin whole or partially, TGT said.