Chairman James Hoecker announced yesterday that a FERC staffteam has been formed to closely monitor developments in theelectric market in an attempt to identify and prevent priceaberrations similar to those which occurred in the Midwest lastsummer.
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Articles from Been
Prices Soar in East; Western Upticks Moderate
Traders who had been pleading for more market volatility duringa long period of relatively little price movement got it in spadesMonday-at least the ones who deal in eastern markets did. Numbersin the East rose by anywhere from 10 to 20 cents, with many pointsup by 15 cents or more. Western increases were considerably moresubdued; many were only a nickel or so, with San Juan Basin’suptick of about a dime leading the region.
Overall Flatness Shows East-West Divergence
The cash market, which had been fairly consistent in overallprice movement for most of last week, went into the weekendstarting to diverge on an East-West axis. While Friday’s mix ofgains and losses amounted to a generally flat wash, Eastern pointstended to be flat to about a nickel higher, and their Westerncounterparts tended to range from flat to about a nickel lower.
Screen Boosts Cash; Northwest Rupture Effect Minimal
“Following the screen”-a market catch-phrase that hasn’t been asmuch in vogue in recent weeks as it used to be-regained popularityMonday as cash prices had little else on which to base modestfirming. New quotes ranged from essentially flat in the Californiaand Northeast markets to as much as a nickel or so higher at pointssuch as the Chicago citygate and El Paso-San Juan (Blanco). Withweather in most areas staying mild and the storage situation stillbearish, it’s hard to see where else beside futures that cash couldhave derived any strength, sources said.
NEB Gives Maritimes Bypass Rights
Round one of a developing battle over Canada’s last virginmarket for natural gas has been won by the first entry, even beforeothers have a chance to set up shop. The National Energy Boardauthorized Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline to serve the firstindustrial customers in Nova Scotia, with a branch line thatbypasses prospective local distributors.
Producer-Owned Pan Alberta Opens for Business
After months of negotiations and two years of wrangling inCanadian courts, Pan-Alberta Gas Ltd. has been taken over by theproducers in its supply pool.
Weekend Pricing Is Slightly Softer
The week’s trading wound to a close Friday with generally lesssoftness than had been expected. In relatively quiet activity, mostpoints were down a few cents with only occasional lapses of morethan a dime. A Midcontinent source who said Thursday he wouldn’t besurprised to see mid $1.30s pricing for the weekend, found insteadmost regional numbers averaging in the $1.50s Friday.
New Dives Ignite Worries of Sub-$1 Weekend Gas
It didn’t take long to eclipse what had been the lowest-everprices for a December date recorded by Daily GPI, and the new lowmarks weren’t even close to the ones seen earlier in the week.Continuing record warmth in the eastern two-thirds of the nationyielded record low gas prices for this time of year. Gulf Coastnumbers were almost a dollar under December indexes only three daysinto the month.
Williams’ Cherokee Expansion in Service
Williams announced yesterday that its Cherokee expansion projecthas been placed into service, increasing capacity on theTranscontinental system by about 87 MMDth/d to provide additionalannual firm transportation capacity to serve markets in Georgia.
FERC’s Capacity Auctions: Going…Going….
FERC is sending out mixed signals about its position onauctions. The Commission staff, on the one hand, has been workingsteadily since July towards developing an “efficient andcost-effective” auction structure for the market, yet last week ittold critics that the auction concept might not be the best routeto go. In fact, staff threw down the gauntlet challenging the gasindustry to come up with a better way to sell pipeline capacity inthe short-term market.