East

With temperatures across much of the East Coast pushing abovethe 70-degree mark yesterday, natural gas futures traders hadlittle choice but to take prices lower. But in contrast to lastThursday’s price direction, which had the trajectory of a safepushed out of a 10-story building, Monday’s market had a some lifeleft in it, enabling traders to trim losses throughout much of thesession. After reaching a low of $2.805 during the first 30 minutesof trading, the December contract battled back to finish at $2.914,off 4.7 cents for the day. Estimated volume was light with just57,373 contracts changing hands.

Citing high market-area demand, Florida Gas Transmission issuedan Overage Alert Day notice Tuesday for the segment east of Station12 (Santa Rosa County, FL). Daily negative imbalances exceeding atolerance of 5% are subject to penalty. The pipeline will evaluatesystem conditions again this morning before deciding whether toextend the OFO.

Until a major sell-off came Friday, it appeared that priceswould realize fairly substantial week-to-week increases, thankslargely to double-digit gains that started the week off lastMonday. But Friday declines that constituted almost a mirror-imagereversal of Monday’s upticks left most points flat to just a fewcents above week-earlier levels. Northern California (Malin andPG&E citygate) showed the most strength, rising almost a dimeabove the previous Friday.

Blocked in its bid for neighboring Southwest Gas, Austin,TX-based Southern Union Co. focused on the East, picking upapproval from its board of directors and that of the Fall River GasCo., on a merger agreement.

After warning of its possibility Tuesday, Florida GasTransmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice Wednesday for themarket area east of Station 12 (Santa Rosa County in the FloridaPanhandle). The notice carries a 6% tolerance for daily negativeimbalances. FGT will re-evaluate conditions this morning beforedeciding whether to extend the notice.

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.

After prices nose-dived during September’s first three days oftrading, a number of traders thought they would never get back toindex levels during the month. Then after steady increases in theweek after Labor Day put quite a few points around or near indexesagain, there were those who said prices were likely to weaken butcertainly wouldn’t plunge to those early-September depths again.

Citing significant market-area demand, Florida Gas Transmissionissued an Overage Alert Day notice Friday for the system east ofStation 12 (Santa Rosa County in the Florida Panhandle). A decisionon whether to extend the OFO was not due until Saturday morning.

Swing prices continued their downhill slide Friday, succumbingto the normal drop in weekend demand, a softer screen and lack offresh storm news. Except for Midwest citygates, where a warmingtrend was developing, virtually all eastern points fell by a dimeor more. Waha and the Permian Basin also experienced dime-plusdeclines, but other western points tended to fall only a nickel orso. Sources attributed the West’s relative firmness to heavy airconditioning and agricultural load in California and other states.