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California regulators last week turned down an emergencysix-month provisional avoided-cost measure that would have frozenthe gas prices used by utilities in their formula for payingmust-take qualifying facility (QF) electricity generators.

Lacking little new input from weather or futures, the cashmarket decided to take it easy for the most part Tuesday. Flat toslightly higher pricing dominated in most areas, with most of thelarger gains of about a dime or more occurring at Rockies/San Juanpoints.

U.S. offshore production of natural gas fell slightly; thenumber of new pipeline projects in the Gulf of Mexico droppeddramatically; Texas — the nation’s leading gas producer — tookhits to its production and consumption levels; California andWyoming experienced a robust boost in production; California sawthe sharpest rise in gas demand; residential users enjoyed theirsecond year of lower delivered gas prices; and pipeline importcapacity expanded considerably.

After gapping higher on the open and racing to new highs,natural gas futures were hit with a powerful wave of selling latein the session that trimmed most of yesterday’s gains and lefttraders wondering if more selling is in store for the market on itsexpiration day today.

Atlanta-based power marketer Southern Energy Inc. raised theestimated price range of its initial public offering yesterday, andexpects net proceeds from the deal to reach $1.05 billion — 19%more than the previously expected $884 million in net proceeds. Itsprice rose nearly $3 yesterday, to $18 to $20 per share from $15 to$17 per share.

BP further cemented its position as the top natural gas producerin North America last week when it acquired the outstandingminority interest in Houston-based independent producer VastarResources Inc.

Major Alaska producers BP Amoco, Phillips Petroleum and Exxon Mobil told a Senate committee last week that they collectively are pursuing plans to build a pipeline to deliver North Slope natural gas to the Lower 48 states, and hope to file an application with FERC and seek other permitting approvals by as early as next year.

Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., which two weeks agoannounced it was increasing its capital budget nearly $50 millionmore this year, said it has completed two system expansion projectsin North Texas, boosting both natural gas sales and gas liquidsproduction.

As Altrade Power nears its one-year birthday, its operator Altrareleased some of the transaction statistics of the independent onlineenergy trading exchange. August saw personal bests being broken by theonline trading platform in power, natural gas liquids, and naturalgas, the company said (see Daily GPI,Oct. 25, 1999).