Breaks

East Tennessee Natural Gas has started laying pipe for its 510,000 Dth/d Patriot Extension into North Carolina. The $298 million extension-expansion project will boost East Tennessee’s existing design capacity of 700,000 Dth/d to more than 1.2 Bcf/d. Service is expected to begin in August or September with capacity increases due in November 2003 and in January 2005.

East Tennessee Natural Gas has started laying pipe for its 510,000 Dth/d Patriot Extension into North Carolina. The $298 million extension-expansion project will boost East Tennessee’s existing design capacity of 700,000 Dth/d to more than 1.2 Bcf/d. Service is expected to begin in August or September with capacity increases due in November 2003 and in January 2005.

Until yesterday the February aftermarket was rather dull and stodgy, with small price movements up or down (mostly up) characterizing each trading day. But the pattern got broken Tuesday with upticks consistently in the range of 15-20 cents reported for both eastern and western points. Larger gains of 30-50 cents were recorded in the Northeast, with a few citygate points seeing WACOGs above $3. (Intra-Alberta and Westcoast Station 2 were also above $3 in Canadian dollars.)

Despite a bullish seasonal weather forecast released by WSI Corp. on Monday, natural gas futures emerged on the downside from their three days in neutral as the November contract slipped 3.6 cents from Friday’s close to notch a $2.208 settle. One trader said November gas futures likely felt sympathy with crude futures, which after rising 69 cents on Friday, experienced a 15-cent decline Monday to finish at $23.28/bbl on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

With wholesale gas costs plummeting, Dominion East Ohio Gas said its customers will pay 25% less for gas in November, December and January than they paid during the same months a year earlier. Under a gas cost recovery (GCR) decrease filed last Wednesday with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Dominion East Ohio sales customers, starting Oct. 26, will pay $5.38/Mcf, down 12.8% from the current $6.17/Mcf and down 25% from the $7.18/Mcf they paid during the third quarter last year.

Peak power demand and summer gas use records fell during the week ending Aug. 12 in New York City as heat pushed temperatures well above 90 degrees, Consolidated Edison reported. Con Edison broke a weekly power demand record when 1,567,147 MWh of electricity were used by its 3.1 million customers from Monday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 12. The week also included the highest-ever hourly peak demand, 12,207 MW, reached at 3 p.m. Thursday. The Con Edison system delivers energy to an estimated 8.9 million New York City and Westchester County residents.

The merger of electric operations of Public Service Co. of New Mexico (PNM) and Kansas-based Western Resources Inc. appears to have foundered on conditions imposed by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC). PNM last Monday said Western had discontinued talks about possible modifications to their proposed transaction, and that the parties are in disagreement about the future of the deal.

Peak power demand and summer gas use records fell last week in New York City as heat pushed temperatures well above 90 degrees, Consolidated Edison reported. Con Edison broke a weekly power demand record when 1,567,147 MWh of electricity were used by its 3.1 million customers from last Monday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 12. The week also included the highest-ever hourly peak demand, 12,207 MW, reached at 3 p.m. Thursday. The Con Edison system delivers energy to an estimated 8.9 million New York City and Westchester County residents.

After years of planning and regulatory hurdles, PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group (PG&E NEG) began construction last week on the Harquahala Generating Plant, a 1,048 MW natural gas-fired generating facility located approximately 70 miles west of Phoenix in the town of Tonopah, AZ (see NGI, Aug. 21, 2000).