Chances

Cash prices plummeted by about a quarter or more nearly across the board Thursday, ignoring an essentially flat screen during the morning that eventually eked out a gain of nearly 7 cents. The market rout had been signaled the day before by a futures dive in response to a larger-than-expected storage injection report, late retreats in Wednesday morning’s cash trading and reports of big drops in both on-line trading for Friday and and rest-of-month baseload numbers.

The chances are good that a major constitutional question regarding whether federal bankruptcy laws trump a California state law restricting the sale of private-sector utility assets will emerge from the comprehensive Pacific Gas and Electric Co. bankruptcy case, in which the utility filed its reorganization plan last Thursday. Not withstanding this potential turn, a San Francisco bankruptcy attorney said Monday if it were not for the state-regulated utility assets involved, the PG&E reorganization plan would be “fairly typical in which certain assets are sold or otherwise financed to pay creditors.”

Northern Natural Gas has had three or more chances to justifyits proposal to offer limited firm throughput (LFT) service on itssystem, but it has struck out every time, industrial anddistributor shippers contend. They have asked FERC to either castaside the pipeline’s proposal for the new service or order radicalchanges to assuage their concerns.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is taking no chances in thewake of the Carlsbad, NM, natural gas pipeline explosion. It hasordered a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on a proposalto refurbish and put back into service the Equilon Pipeline, a406-mile, 42-year old crude oil pipeline from Odessa, TX toBloomfield, NM.

Northern Natural Gas has had three or more chances to justifyits proposal to offer limited firm throughput (LFT) service on itssystem, but it has struck out every time, industrial anddistributor shippers contend. They have asked FERC to either castaside the pipeline’s proposal for the new service or order radicalchanges to assuage their concerns.

Natural gas futures chopped lower yesterday in a tight, mostlyfeatureless session as traders continued to factor in the nowimminent threat of warming weather for much of the nation. Wideningits discount to outer months, the March contract was the hardesthit by the sell-off, tumbling 2.9 cents to finish at $2.541.Estimated volume was very modest, with just 44,670 contractschanging hands.

What are the chances that the U.S. would experience yet anotherwarmer-than-normal winter after just having two in a row?Apparently they’re pretty good right now, according to a new winterweather forecast released last week by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration. One thing is certain: the La Ninatropical Pacific sea temperature event, which is expected toinfluence this winter’s weather, will throw a monkey wrench inregional weather forecasting models.

What are the chances that the U.S. would experience yet anotherwarmer-than-normal winter after just having two in a row?Apparently they’re pretty good right now, according to a new winterweather forecast released last week by the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration. One thing is certain: the La Ninatropical Pacific sea temperature event, which is expected toinfluence this winter’s weather, will throw a monkey wrench intoregional weather forecasting models.