Beyond

Northern Natural Gas did not extend a System Overrun Limitation notice beyond Tuesday. A bulletin board posting projected that the pipeline’s weighted system temperature was projected to go from 2 degrees above zero Tuesday to 14 degrees Wednesday to 19 degrees Thursday and to 23 degrees Friday. The normal system average at this time of year is 15 degrees, the posting said.

Although many have questioned the causes of the recent price spike beyond $7/MMBtu, the federal government’s long-term natural gas forecast released Tuesday makes it clear that the gas market has become, and will remain, tighter and more prone to higher prices than previously expected.

Although many have questioned the causes of the recent price spike beyond $7/MMBtu, the federal government’s long-term natural gas forecast released Tuesday makes it clear that the gas market has become, and will remain, tighter and more prone to higher prices than previously expected.

It’s back to the future for El Paso Corp., company executives said Monday, with the focus beyond 2006 returning exclusively to natural gas, both pipelines and exploration and production (E&P). All of its U.S. power assets, all of its oil refining and eventually, all telecommunications businesses will be sold, and others will be streamlined, including marketing and physical trading and midstream.

Southern California Gas did not extend a high-linepack OFO beyond Wednesday.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO beyond Friday. However, the California market continued to be impacted by a similar constraint as Southern California Gas declared an OFO for Saturday. The utility would automatically reduce volumes for any shipper exceeding a 10% tolerance on deliveries into the system, a SoCalGas spokeswoman said.

Florida Gas Transmission did not continue an Overage Alert Day notice for its market area beyond Tuesday, but alerted customers that one could be reinstituted Thursday to keep linepack from falling too low.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO with zero imbalance tolerance beyond Saturday.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO beyond Thursday.