Despite

Taking into account strong gas futures prices despite thewarmest winter on record, a bleak supply picture and projections ofa very hot summer, PaineWebber reported an increase in its year2000 projection of composite spot gas prices from $2.40/MMBtu to$2.50/MMBtu. The firm’s report, issued yesterday, also indicatedthat the time is right to invest in diversified energy companies.

Despite a Wednesday afternoon storage report that many tradersconsidered modestly bullish, most prices fell by up to a nickelThursday. California and a few Rockies and South Texas points, withflat to slightly higher showings, defied the overall trend.

Despite notching new annual volume records for the fifth consecutive year since NGI started ranking gas marketers, the pace of volume growth among the top 20 North American gas and power marketers has shown some signs of decline.

Despite projecting linepack within its operating limits targetrange, Pacific Gas & Electric extended a high-inventory OFO (seeDaily GPI, March 15 and March 16) into its third day today butloosened the tolerance for positive imbalances slightly from 1% to2%. The utility expects linepack to exceed its upper limit targetagain Saturday.

Despite notching new annual volume records for the fifthconsecutive year since NGI started ranking gas marketers, the paceof volume growth in the gas and power marketing businesses hasshown some signs of decline.

Despite a positive open and stronger cash prices, natural gasfutures slumped into the weekend as traders surveyed the prospectof more bearish news this next week in a market that many feel isalready overvalued. After opening at $2.81 the prompt contract wasunable to muster much in the way of upward momentum, and that setthe tone for a choppy, range-bound trading session. April finisheddown 1.2 cents at $2.774. Estimated volume confirmed the lacklustertrading, as only 43,848 contracts changed hands.

Despite finally convincing Columbia Energy Group to completelyreverse its position and sell-out for about $72/share, $2/shareless than the previous tender offer, NiSource Inc. still faces asteep uphill battle to get the transaction approved by shareholdersand regulators, and to finance the deal, according to investmentbankers.

Despite spring-like weather here, there and almost everywhere,this week’s price erosion came to a halt Thursday as many pointsturned in flat performances and a few managed small rallies.

Despite Tuesday’s large opening gap and 11.8-cent collapse, theMarch contract found support in the high $2.40s yesterday andmanaged a small 1.5-cent gain to end the regular trading day at$2.530. It hit bottom at $2.465 and reached a high for the day of$2.545. April was down 0.3 cents to $2.541, and nearly all of theremaining months were unchanged from the day prior.