Days

The head of a Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB) task forcethat’s exploring the feasibility of the organization gettinginvolved in creating standards for retail electric and natural gas,as well as for wholesale power, personally believes a newstandards-setting group should be formed to undertake the task.

Formed when one day’s high is lower than the next days’ low,chart gaps are a technical feature that garner plenty of marketattention. And the natural gas futures market has had more than itsshare of gaps during the month of April. There are theyet-to-be-filled daily continuation chart gaps at $2.90-92 and$3.03-045 as well as the $3.08-11 gap that was filled in by the Maycontract just prior to its expiry Wednesday. All told, May’s tenureas prompt month could be easily described as tight, choppytechnical trading. Only once during that period did May have adaily trading range that exceeded a dime (April 4).

Just days after winning antitrust clearance from the Departmentof Justice (DOJ), the proposed merger of Philadelphia-based PECOEnergy Co. and Unicom Corp. of Chicago, parent of CommonwealthEdison Co., got more good news last week — it sailed through FERCwithout any conditions attached.

Just days after winning anti-trust clearance from the Departmentof Justice (DOJ), the proposed merger of Philadelphia-based PECOEnergy Co. and Unicom Corp. of Chicago, parent of CommonwealthEdison Co., got some more good news yesterday — it sailed throughFERC with no conditions attached.

An outage of the Sea Robin Plant will be extended by two days torepair unexpected damage found during combuster inspection. Thedamage was one part of the gas turbine and unrelated to thecombuster. The plant is expected to resume processing on or aboutApril 19.

Pacific Gas & Electric ended a high-inventory OFO Saturdayafter it had been in effect for three days.

Things are looking up, at least a little, for offshore rigutilization, according to Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co.(DCR). The firm says operating rates have increased steadily overthe past 12 months as drilling day rates for a shallow waterjack-up rig have risen from a low of $22,000 to current levels ofaround $50,000. Offshore rig utilization has also steadilyincreased from a low of 72% during the summer of 1999, to 81% inFebruary 2000. Oil prices are averaging better than $20/barrel andOPEC countries continue to adhere to new, reduced productionquotas, resulting in lower reported crude oil supplies. Also,according to Oil & Gas Journal, natural gas energy consumptionis projected to increase 8.4 % by 2002.

After several successive days of stagnation, the cash marketfinally was able to use a little bit of screen support andexpectations of colder weather moving into major market areas toget out of its rut Tuesday. Prices ranged from flat in theSouthwest basins to more than a nickel higher at New Englandcitygates and for intra-Alberta and several related western points.Most quotes rose between 3 and 5 cents.

Florida Gas Transmission extended maintenance at Station 14 in theFlorida Panhandle through Dec. 4, three days beyond the originallyprojected end date (see Daily GPI,Nov. 29). As previously posted, the work limits FGT’s market areato about 1.3 Bcf/d. Due to significant demand, the pipeline Wednesdayissued an Overage Alert Day notice for the system east of Station12. It carries a 6% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.