Demand

With demand rising in southern California and its pipes too fullto do anything about it, Transwestern Pipeline Co. is holding anopen season through Dec. 18 to solicit shipper interest in apossible mainline expansion. The pipeline is exploring theconstruction of a compressor station near Gallup, NM, that willincrease mainline capacity to the California border by 140,000Dth/d. The cost of the expansion is estimated at $15-$20 million.

Essentially nothing had changed in the fundamental demandpicture Tuesday, and late-November cash prices responded with verylittle change themselves. Minuscule softness dominated at mostpoints, and the few declines rarely exceeded a nickel. Sources indiverse regions continued to report unseasonably mild temperatures.

Cross Bay Pipeline Co., a limited liability company formed bysubsidiaries of Williams, Duke Energy and KeySpan Energy, announcedit is holding a 30-day open season from Oct. 15 to Nov. 13 todetermine market interest in 125,000 Dth/d of firm capacity to theNew York City metropolitan area.

Normally natural gas futures are influenced by a hodgepodge offactors: storage, technicals, support, resistance, supply anddemand. Of course last week was anything but normal as a hurricanewhich the market has not seen the likes of since Andrew, wasbearing down on the Gulf of Mexico leaving a wide swath ofdestruction in its wake. Now the question to be answered is whetherHurricane Georges (pronounced ZHORZH) will not only live in theminds of residents of Florida and the Carribean Islands, but alsoin the memories of natural gas traders. That was still a very murkyquestion as of Friday. One thing was becoming evident late lastweek: October’s expiration today will be anything but normal. But,despite the continued threat of storm, the October actually slipped0.2 cents to settle at $2.181 on Friday.

Amoco plans to develop one of its largest gas discoveriesoffshore Trinidad and Tobago to serve future demand on the islandsand supply the Atlantic LNG export project in Trinidad.

The National Energy Board has started preparing a reportentitled Canadian Energy Supply and Demand 1998-2025, which isscheduled to be published in 1999. It will provide an analysis ofenergy trends, issues and developments impacting Canada over thenext quarter century. The Board will be taking public comments toobtain the views of interested parties. Written comments or papersmust be received no later than May 12. The first round of publicconsultations will take place in informal workshops in April invarious cities across the country. The Board has identified thefollowing tentative dates and locations for these publicconsultations: Calgary (April 8), Toronto (April 15), Montreal(April 17), Halifax (April 20), Ottawa (April 22) and Vancouver(April 28). Specific dates and locations will be finalizedfollowing the receipt of responses by interested parties. Fordetails see NEB’s website at www.neb.gc.ca/home.htm, or contactLorna Patterson at (403) 299-3987. Registration to participate inpublic discussion groups must be received no later than March 20