Daily

Pacific Gas & Electric extended a systemwide Stage 3high-inventory OFO through at least today, but loosened thetolerance for positive daily imbalances from 1% to 3%. The utilitycontinued to project linepack rising well above its maximum targetlevels through Saturday.

After pushing higher but failing to fill in a key gap on thedaily chart, the March contract sifted lower yesterday as tradersset their sights on stubborn support in the $5.62 area. As it turnsout, $5.62 was little more than a speed bump as prices dippedeasily below that level in a post-AGA sell-off. The March contractwas hit the hardest, tumbling 50.1 cents to close at $5.518.

Sonat said it anticipates storage injections will exceed thedaily capacity of its storage fields this week. The weatherforecast is for a continued warming trend through Friday, andinstead of receipt nominations going down they actually went up forthe gas day of Wednesday, the company said. If Southern does notsee a reduction in receipt nominations for Thursday’s gas day it ishighly likely that it will have to implement an OFO.

Repairs on an A-Line leak at the GPM/NNG Farnsworth receipt point(see Daily GPI, Feb. 7), affecting15,000 MMBtu/d, have been extended, Northern Natural Gas saidWednesday. The work, formerly expected to be completed Wednesday, nowlikely will last until Saturday, NNG said.

A weather forecast that had ignited bullish hopes late last week(see Daily GPI, Feb. 2) appeared to begetting heavily discounted Monday. The result was huge downturns inboth cash and futures prices. California led the way with dollar-plusdrops, and all other markets were falling between about 50 cents and adollar.

El Paso canceled an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation Tuesdayafter linepack was stabilized. The OFO had been declared Sunday (seeDaily GPI, Jan. 30).

A day after it filed for a 35% rate increase, noting growinguncollected power costs, (see Daily GPI, Jan. 25) Sempra Energy reported a 20%increase in earnings in 2000 over 1999. Earnings for the parent of SanDiego Gas & Electric and Southern California Gas totaled $429million, or $2.06/diluted share, compared to $394 million or $1.66 perdiluted share for 1999. Revenues for 2000 increased 30% hitting $7billion.

After failing to fill in a looming chart gap on the daily chartsduring Sunday night’s Access trading session, natural gas futuressank lower for much of the session Monday, as day traders rotatedto the short side of the market. That selling pressure enabled theFebruary contract to trim all of Sunday’s advances, finishing 0.2cents down on the day at $7.457.

In another topsy-turvy trading session, natural gas futuresfinished well off daily highs, but still in positive territoryyesterday as players bid up the market in the morning only to dumpit lower after fresh storage data was released. The Januarycontract traded within a wide, 50-cent range and closed 22.4 centsstronger at $9.326. Most of the out-months were much more staid,with May through December 2001 contracts only able to tack on a1.5-cent gain. Illiquid trading contributed to the volatility asless than 45,175 contracts changed hands.