Bound

After opening higher for the second day in a row, natural gas futures were left to chop lower as many traders elected to wait patiently on the sidelines ahead of fresh storage data from the American Gas Association. Trading picked up a little after the report was released (a 49 Bcf withdrawal), but even that was unable to propel the May contract outside of its recent trading range. By virtue of its $5.182 close, the prompt month for the second day in a row finished stronger on the day, but below its opening trade.

Regardless of what state and federal officials would prefer,California’s now-Chapter 11-bound former wholesale spot powermarket, the California Power Exchange (Cal-PX) is not goingquietly. The PX perfers to fight to re-attain former utilityfutures contracts seized by the governor and to support theviability of electricity commodity exchanges if regulators andpoliticians will make a commitment to make them work.

Royal Dutch/Shell said yesterday it expects to have plans inplace by this July to export liquefied natural gas to the UnitedStates and southern Europe from Egypt. Egypt has enough gasreserves to commit 10 Tcf to 15 Tcf to export, said Shell.

The proposed Florida-bound Buccaneer Gas Pipeline and GulfstreamNatural Gas System have received initial environmental clearancesfrom FERC, with staff proposing that the two pipeline projects bejoined at the hip in Polk County in the central part of the state,west of Tampa.

The proposed Florida-bound Buccaneer Gas Pipeline and GulfstreamNatural Gas System have received initial environmental clearancesfrom FERC, with staff proposing the two pipeline projects be joinedat the hip in Polk County in the central part of the state, east ofTampa.

Florida just got two steps closer to being flooded by naturalgas via two proposed pipelines. The competing Gulfstream andBuccaneer pipeline projects, which would extend from Mobile, AL,across the Gulf of Mexico to the west coast of Florida and tomarkets across the Florida peninsula, are neck and neck in theirregulatory race after receiving preliminary approvals onnon-environmental grounds from the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission (FERC) yesterday.

Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America (NGPL) andTexas Eastern Transmission (TETCO) are targeting the market thatwants to move gas east from Chicago with a reciprocal capacitylease arrangement. NGPL says the transportation service can beprovided with only one additional interconnect, so it is far morecost effective than the greenfield projects already proposed whichrequire massive construction.

As FERC last week was delivering bad news to the Northeast-boundIndependence Pipeline and associated SupplyLink and MarketLinkprojects, the Commission staff was delivering a report to CapitolHill that concluded new pipeline capacity may be needed for theregion within the next three to five years. It didn’t specify howmuch capacity though (See related story).

As FERC last week was delivering bad news to the Northeast-boundIndependence Pipeline and associated SupplyLink and MarketLinkprojects, the Commission staff was delivering a report to CapitolHill that concluded new pipeline capacity may be needed for theregion within the next three to five years. It didn’t specify howmuch capacity though (See related story).