Exceed

Expecting linepack to exceed its maximum target levels over the weekend, Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide high-inventory OFO for Saturday. The order had $5/Dth penalties for positive daily imbalances exceeding a 6% tolerance.

Sonat said it anticipates storage injections will exceed thedaily capacity of its storage fields this week. The weatherforecast is for a continued warming trend through Friday, andinstead of receipt nominations going down they actually went up forthe gas day of Wednesday, the company said. If Southern does notsee a reduction in receipt nominations for Thursday’s gas day it ishighly likely that it will have to implement an OFO.

Cincinnati-based Cinergy Corp. said that next year’s profitsmight exceed expectations because of its growth from the purchaseof power plants. Cinergy now expects earnings per share for 2000 tohit the consensus estimates of $2.55, however next year, thecompany expects to grow 8% through merchant purchases.

Northwest Pipeline said yesterday if primary nomination requestscontinue to exceed the Kemmerer north flow capacity, starting onThursday it will begin an OFO. Since Oct. 27, scheduled gas throughthe Kemmerer Compressor station has exceeded capacity because of ashortfall in displacement volumes on all but one day. Recently, northflow primary nomination requests through Kemmerer have been up to50,000 Dth in excess of available capacity. Northwest said capacity isinsufficient to meet the north flow nomination requests — withoutsystem design displacement volumes — through Kemmerer and stillmaintain system reliability. Under the OFO provisions, shippers willbe notified to realign nominations from receipt points south ofKemmerer to receipt points north of Kemmerer. In addition, Northwestadvises that “affected shippers” recall capacity to the extent theyhave OFO exposure. Contact Northwest’s hotline for information (801)584-7301. To fulfill OFO obligations with an action other than recall,contact Jan Caldwell at (801) 584-7155 or Jane Harrison at (801)584-7225. (See Northwest’s bulletin for details on the potentialOFO)

Anticipating linepack that would exceed its upper-level target,Pacific Gas & Electric issued a customer-specific OFO fortoday.

The cash market continued Tuesday to show the same signs ofaftermarket strength-and even more in some cases-that it did lastFriday in swing deals done for June 1 only. Many of the Gulf Coastpipes were trading about a dime above indexes, and most otherpoints were at least a nickel above indexes. However, some tradersdidn’t expect the higher prices to last, noting late softness insome markets such as Chicago.

Sumas was making waves in the gas market earlier in the week bybeing the first point to exceed $3 pricing in this winter season.But it was tsunami time Friday as the $3 level was left way behind.How does paying $25/Mcf for Canadian supplies grab you?

Sumas had the distinction Tuesday of being the first point tosurpass $3 pricing in the current winter heating season, althoughPG&E citygates had gotten as high as $2.92 in the second weekof November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 11). In super-volatile quotes thatranged from the $2.20 area to as high as $3.40 (one source said heheard a $3.50 deal got done), Sumas soared far above an overallmarket that had turned stagnant since Monday’s strong rebound.

The relatively small declines in Eastern markets Fridaysurprised some traders. Although down another 2-5 cents overall,pipes in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent were rebounding late tolevels essentially flat from Thursday. The weakness in Thursdayafternoon’s Access futures trading pushed prices down early Friday,a marketer said, “then things came back up when the Merc showed alittle strength.” Although the screen eventually shed its gains towind up basically unchanged, that occurred too late to impact cashtrading.