Chips

South Africa’s Sasol Ltd. last week put in all the chips on a bet that U.S. natural gas is here to stay, announcing plans to construct a $16-21 billion natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant in Westlake, LA — the second largest commercial plant of its kind in the world.

National Fuel Gas (NFG) continues to bet more chips on the Marcellus Shale.

National Fuel Gas (NFG) continues to bet more chips on the Marcellus Shale.

April natural gas futures rallied 19.1 cents Wednesday to finish at $7.083 as some end-users decided the $6.900 level was a prime place to cash in their chips and buy gas. While the prompt month settled higher for the first time in six regular sessions and above $7 for the first time in three, some market experts weren’t ready to bring their bull costumes out of the closet just yet, even with the expectations that a significant storage withdrawal would be revealed Thursday.

The New York City area pocketed a number of chips from the FERC board last Wednesday, picking up two projects to expand capacity from the north onto Long Island, as well as the long-delayed Millennium Pipeline to feed western Canadian supplies into the city from the west (see NGI, Sept. 2).

The New York City area pocketed a number of chips from the FERC board Wednesday, picking up two projects to expand capacity from the north onto Long Island, as well as the long-delayed Millennium Pipeline to feed western Canadian supplies into the city from the west (see Daily GPI, Aug. 29).

ANR Pipeline slipped more than a few lumps of coal in GuardianPipeline’s stocking over the holidays’ in the form of a 250-pageprotest and motion for dismissal filed with FERC. The Coastalsubsidiary has a right to be angry at its new competitor. TheGuardian project will result in the decontracting of about 650MDth/d of ANR’s firm transportation capacity by Guardian shipperand affiliate Wisconsin Gas and the loss of $54 million in annualrevenue, according to ANR’s calculations.

The chips are stale; the drinks are flat, and people areleaving. The New York Mercantile Exchange electricity futurescontracts aren’t very festive, and now the host is wondering whatit can do to liven up the party.

If the Nymex electricity futures contracts were a party, by nowthe chips would be stale and the drinks flat, with only a handfulof guests having shown. Despite much fanfare over their respectivelaunchings, the New York Mercantile Exchange’s five electricitycontracts have largely languished for lack of activity.