Boost

Thanks to impending colder weather in the major northern marketareas along with some extra boost from a rising screen, overallcash prices ranged from flat to about a nickel higher Thursday,with increases of 3-6 cents tending to occur most frequently.

The next growth step for Atlantic Canada’s fledgling natural gasindustry has popped up on the horizon in the form of a discoverywith potential to double offshore production and exports to NewEngland. Offshore of Nova Scotia, PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd.expects to know by the end of this year the true size of a gas findin the Sable Island region that it has christened Deep Panuke.

Despite record drilling and high gas prices, Canadian producersstill are not managing to boost production. TransCanada Pipelinesestimates Alberta field receipts were 2% lower than expected thiswinter and ended up being essentially flat with the 12.4 Bcf/drecorded in winter 1998-99.

Despite record drilling and high gas prices, Canadian producersstill are not managing to boost production. TransCanada Pipelinesestimates Alberta field receipts were 2% lower than expected thiswinter and ended up being essentially flat with the 12.4 Bcf/drecorded in winter 1998-99.

In response to pressure from the market and Nymex, the AmericanGas Association last month announced that it would move forward therelease of its weekly gas storage data. Some traders and analystspredicted the change would increase liquidity, but most observersbelieved it would have little or no impact on the market. In fact,some market watchers even said the early release would decreasevolatility because of the natural efficiencies inherit in Nymex’sopen outcry trading system.

Lauded by both the Interstate Gas Association of America (INGAA)and the Natural Gas Supply Association (NGSA) as a boost for thegas industry, the Environmental Protection Agency’s program forreducing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions for 19 eastern andmidwestern states plus the District of Columbia was upheld by theDistrict of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals recently. Barring anyfurther appeals, the NOx SIP Call rule will be added to the CleanAir Act, requiring the states included in it to reduce their NOxemissions by a total of 1.2 million tons, or 28% from currentlevels, annually. The court’s decision was passed March 3.

Building on Monday’s gains, natural gas futures inched higheryesterday as bulls received a boost from strength in the nearbycash market. After thwarting an early sell-off, buyers weresuccessful in bidding the February contract up 4.4 cents to closeat $2.26. That made it four for four trading sessions in which theprompt month has posted higher highs and higher lows.

Feeding off January’s late expiration-day rally, the futuresmarket shuffled higher yesterday as local buying slightlyout-matched trade selling in an extremely light trading session.The only notable feature was a late local-led sell-off that trimmedgains into the close. With that, the February contract completedits first day of trading as the spot contract up 2.5 cents to$2.394.

Swing trading for the last day of November saw prices rising bydouble-digit amounts at nearly every point Monday except in theRockies. The fact that post-holiday temperatures had grownconsiderably colder in the East were a partial factor in theincreases; however, sources said it were the avoidance of payingeven higher November cash-out prices to the pipelines that wasprimarily behind the incremental push higher.