Expected

President Clinton is expected to sign in a week or two the Kyotoagreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but his action willbe seen as “more of a gesture of goodwill” to the conferencecurrently underway in Argentina further addressing the issue,according to Capitol Hill and gas industry sources. He has nointention of submitting the accord for ratification to the Senate,which is sharply opposed to it.

The producer who expected Midcontinent prices to be back aroundNovember indexes “fairly soon” (see Daily GPI, Nov. 3) didn’t havelong to wait. In fact, he underestimated the cash market as biggains across the board-except for intra-Alberta-Tuesday carriednearly all points back to index levels or higher. Rises between 15and 35 cents dominated the market.

As several observers expected, cash prices started to retracetheir steps back down Thursday after having peaked the day before.Declines ranged from as little as a nickel to nearly 15 cents, butmost were in the neighborhood of a dime.

Anadarko Petroleum said its annual energy production is expectedto grow at an average rate of 18% per year, from 48 million energyequivalent barrels (EEBs) in 1998 to an estimated 92 million EEBsin 2002. The company said the new production forecast is based ondevelopment of known fields and does not include any newexploration discoveries.

Williams Chairman Keith E. Bailey said Tuesday the company’sunaudited third quarter financials, which are expected to bereleased today, will include $70 million, or 10 cents per share, inpre-tax charges and write-downs.

Cash prices finally turned downward Thursday, a day later thanseveral sources had expected. Even with the futures screen staginga modest rally, cash traders were unable to ignore the previous twodays’ weakness in the Nymex pit, the continuing lack of weatherfundamentals and yet another bearish storage report that once againemphasised how close injection demand is getting to disappearing.

Cash prices started out Tuesday playing catch-up with the Nymexscreen’s late increases on Monday, but wound up either flat or withsmall gains after futures reversed field. Only supply-constrainedSumas managed an increase of more than about 4 cents, and numberswere down a few cents on some Rockies pipes and at NorthernCalifornia market points.

As a Daily GPI source had predicted Monday, that day’s futuresrun-up provided enough momentum to keep most cash market points onthe rise Tuesday. But don’t bet the farm on cash firmness tocontinue today, not after the screen’s headlong plunge Tuesday,several traders said. Despite heat waves remaining in the West andSouth, there is not enough in the way of fundamentals to counterthe screen’s negative influence, they said.

Niagara Mohawk Power’s new holding company structure, which isexpected to receive regulatory approval in the first quarter of1999, will be called Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. William E. Davis,currently Niagara Mohawk Power chairman and CEO, will becomechairman and CEO of Niagara Mohawk Holdings. Niagara MohawkHoldings will succeed Niagara Mohawk Power as the sole entity inwhich common stock is held.