Down

North Mainline capacity on El Paso is down by 300 MMcf/d throughOct. 29 due to an overhaul of the Williams (AZ) “C” turbine thatwas set to begin Sunday (Oct. 10).

Colder weather in northern market areas didn’t do much to raisecash prices, but it kept demand high enough to provide some pricesupport. Most eastern points were flat to slightly higher. In theWest, Rockies pipes emulated markets to the East with generallyflat performances, but California points fell by about a nickel ormore after PG&E announced it was lifting its two-daylow-linepack OFO.

As Floyd wreaked havoc up and down the East Coast last week,Hurricane FERC wrought its own brand of torrent on new pipelineconstruction. Shifting its policy more toward a market-based andconsumer-oriented focus, the Commission voted out (4-1) a policystatement eliminating set requirements for supporting contracts andany presumption for rolled-in pricing that would raise the rates ofexisting customers.

Following a five-day, 30-cent price drop, the natural gasfutures market dug in its claws Friday as scale-down industrialbuyers found good value in winter gas prices. Gaining 6.2 cents tofinish at $2.608 the October contract was only the tip of theiceberg. Led by the December contract, which was up 7.7 cents to$2.974, the winter strip (Nov.-Mar.) posted an impressive 5.6-centgain.

Among the more notable sacrifices being made to get KN Energy “out of the ditch” and back down the highway are the decisions by Richard Kinder and William Morgan to work for annual salaries of $1 with no bonuses. They will become the two largest shareholders of the new company once the merger of Kinder Morgan and KN is completed. They also will be the top two executives.

Among the more notable sacrifices being made to get KN Energy”out of the ditch” and back down the highway are the decisions byRichard Kinder and William Morgan to work for annual salaries of $1with no bonuses. They will become the two largest shareholders ofthe new company once the merger of Kinder Morgan and KN Energy iscompleted. They also will be the top two executives.

Oneok Inc., the successful bidder for Southwest Gas Corp., threwdown the gauntlet earlier this week, challenging losing bidderSouthern Union (SU) to present evidence by today to support itsallegations that Oneok conspired to illegally influence SouthwestGas in its choice of merger partner.

California’s major natural gas industry players, some 75parties, will sit down again seeking agreement on a plan forunbundling the Southern California Gas system that has so-farresisted full opening up of intrastate and interstate transmissionand storage for all customers, large and small.

Columbia shareholders have sent a “resounding message” to theColumbia board to sit down and negotiate a merger deal withNiSource. More than 60% (49,638,497) of CG common shares had beentendered in response to NiSource’s $68/share offer ($5.7 billion)as of last Friday and NiSource extended the deadline of the tenderoffer to Oct. 15.