Dominant

The dominant pipeline market in natural gas will always be regional, but companies’ strategic sights increasingly will be global, as the geographic dislocation of reserves to market is partly mitigated by new ways of linking stranded fields and customers, according to a report released on Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

The dominant pipeline market in natural gas will always be regional, but companies’ strategic sights increasingly will be global, as the geographic dislocation of reserves to market is partly mitigated by new ways of linking stranded fields and customers, according to a report released on Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).

Plunges in New England citygates and mild firmness in the Rockies constituted the extremes in an overall market Tuesday that saw most points range from flat to down about 20 cents. A solid majority of the declines were small at less than a dime.

For a third straight trading day Monday, mild firmness was the dominant cash market trait. A few scattered points fell by a couple of pennies, but the rest saw prices ranging from flat to nearly a dime higher in most cases. Overall increases remained small, however, as a majority of upticks were less than a nickel.

The market emerged from a three-day weekend with negative influences still dominant throughout the East and no hint of a rally in sight. Declines tended to range from a nickel to about a dime at eastern points, with those on either side of a dime most prevalent. Larger drops of up to about 20 cents were recorded at unseasonably mild Northeast citygates and downright balmy Florida citygates.

Mostly flat numbers made it three days in a row Monday as the dominant market characteristic. Whereas small declines outweighed the small upticks on Friday, there was more of a tendency toward slightly higher pricing yesterday.

A slightly more positive set of weather fundamentals kept flat numbers dominant in weekend trading Friday. There was a slight bias toward the downside, but few points fell by more than 1-2 cents.

Market power “is unlikely to be the dominant factor and may not even be significant” in the run-up of power prices in the California market, according to a study prepared by Harvard Professor William Hogan and Scott Harvey, with LECG, LLC, an economic and management consulting company based in Cambridge, MA.

Market power “is unlikely to be the dominant factor and may not even be significant” in the run-up of power prices in the California market, according to a study prepared by Harvard Professor William Hogan and Scott Harvey of LECG LLC, an economic and management consulting company based in Cambridge, MA.