Essentially

California’s first merchant natural gas storage facility, Canadian-backed Wild Goose Storage, was fined $51,500 and criticized by state regulators Thursday for its handling of the change of parent company that occurred when EnCana was formed last year. It was a first-of-its-kind fine for this type of technical violation; previous fines never exceeded $8,000.

Much of the cash market was essentially flat Monday, although Transco Zone 6-NYC and several Western Canada/Pacific Northwest points saw sizeable declines, while Rockies/San Juan numbers were up anywhere from a dime to about 30 cents. Otherwise it was rare for any point to vary more than 2-3 cents up or down from flat.

In many cases cash prices were coming down Thursday about as fast as they had climbed Wednesday, and at some primarily western points Thursday’s losses were greater than the gains of the day before. A majority of drops were in the range of 30-40 cents, but overall they ran from as small as about 12 cents (Kosci) to nearly half a dollar (Transco Zone 6).

Much of the cash market “followed the screen” essentially nowhere as flatness dominated at a majority of points Thursday. However, there were pockets of price movement here and there. The Northeast and PG&E-related California points weakened by as much as the teens, while San Juan/Rockies/Pacific Northwest quotes rose by a nickel or more. In addition, several scattered Gulf Coast and Midcontinent points defied the overall flat trend with upticks or downticks of up to a dime.

Prices ranged from essentially flat to down about 15 cents at Malin Monday. Apart from Malin, all other declines were generally a dime or less. Weather fundamentals remained weak in the northern market areas and Tropical Storm Chantal was getting little credence as a serious threat to Gulf of Mexico production for the time being. Those factors and screen weakness accounted for much of the post-weekend cash softening, sources said.

Price movement ranged from essentially none to nearly a dime higher for most points Thursday. Small declines at Northeast citygates and larger ones for the PG&E citygate and California border-SoCal gas were the exceptions in one direction, while upticks of 15-20 cents or so more for Malin and intra-Alberta broke the pattern in the other direction.

Essentially ignoring an expiration-day dive by the June futures contract, eastern points (except for moderately weaker Midwest citygates, Appalachian pipes and Trunkline in Louisiana) tended to range from barely lower to as much as about a nickel higher in late-May swing trading Tuesday. Most increases, though, were little above flat.

By a vote of 98-0, the Senate yesterday voted out apipeline-safety bill that essentially mirrors the legislation thatwas passed last year, with one “significant” change – it wouldrequire natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines to undergosafety inspections every five years. But, as with any Capitol Hilllegislation, it would allow waivers under certain circumstances.

Strong interest amounting to essentially double the proposedcapacity from a recently completed open season has units ofPG&E Corp. and Sempra Energy pushing for a FERC filing by theend of this month for their joint venture natural gas pipelinelateral from the Arizona-California border through northern Baja inMexico, PG&E’s CEO told financial analysts Tuesday.