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Bulls saved their best for last on Friday. After being held to an extremely-tight, 7-cent trading range throughout much of the session, natural gas futures shot high during the closing 75 minutes of trading in concert with a spike in the nearby crude oil pit. At the closing bell, June natural gas futures were up a modest 4.3 cents or 1% at $4.291. Comparatively, June crude was up an even dollar or a little over 3% at $29.91.

Sea Robin reported completing an investigation of a leak in its “J” leg segment (see Daily GPI, May 16). The “J” leg is being returned to service after the leak was isolated on the lateral serving Eugene Island Block 305 (receipt location 94027), Sea Robin said. It resumed taking nominations for Thursday’s gas day at all affected points except for location 94027.

A direct, express pipeline stretching all the way to Chicago from Prudhoe Bay is among the options being considered for tapping Arctic natural gas by the three principal production companies operating in Alaska. The mammoth possibility was disclosed in the Canadian gas capital of Calgary, to a conference of the Canadian Energy Research Institute, by the North American Natural Gas Pipeline Group.

Tuesday trading was close to being a repeat of Monday’s in that the overall price gains were mostly on either side of a dime or greater. Flat to lower numbers at the California border-SoCalGas, PG&E citygate and the Pacific Northwest’s Sumas and Stanfield points were the primary exceptions to continued firmness.

Tennessee reported being notified by Dynegy Midstream Services,operator of the Yscloskey Gas Processing Plant in southeasternLouisiana, that effective April 1 the plant will no longer process”strangers” gas that does not have a contractual relationship withthe plant. In the event this action causes Tennessee to once againexperience operational difficulties attributable to gas with highBtu levels, the pipeline said, it will do whatever is necessary tolower overall Btu content on its 500 Line to manageable levels.

Just as a couple of producers had predicted, the screen’s upturnMonday afternoon after being mildly negative earlier was enough togenerate a moderate cash rally Tuesday. Only the SouthernCalifornia border and Malin continued to head lower. Just as mostof Monday’s declines had been between 10 and 20 cents, the sameapproximate range applied to most of Tuesday’s rises.

An underground battle was being waged last week over the FERCchairmanship, with several sources reporting that current ChairmanCurt L. Hebert may be asked to step aside to make way for Pat WoodIII, who now heads up theTexas Public Utility Commission (PUC).Wood was appointed to the PUC in 1995 by then-Governor George W.Bush and was a member of the Bush energy transition team.

An underground battle was being waged last week over the FERCchairmanship, with several sources reporting that current ChairmanCurt L. Hebert may be asked to step aside to make way for Pat WoodIII, currently chairman of the Texas Public Utility Commission(PUC). Wood was appointed to the PUC in 1995 by then-GovernorGeorge W. Bush and was a member of the Bush energy transition team.

With the cry for increased natural gas production being heardacross the North America, it’s no wonder that exploration andproduction companies such as Calgary-based Talisman Energy areupping their capital expenditure programs to try and meet demand.The company announced last week it will boost its exploration anddevelopment budget by 44% over year 2000 levels to C$1.7 billion.