Experienced

Northwest Pipeline experienced a leak Tuesday afternoon on itsVancouver (WA) Lateral. There were no injuries. Preliminaryinvestigation indicates third-party damage, the pipeline said.Service was disrupted to direct industrial customer Vanalco and toindustrial customers of LDC Northwest Natural Gas in the area untilbeing restored at 11:24 p.m. PST Tuesday.

The futures market experienced heavy expiration-day lossesyesterday, adding to price erosion that occurred Tuesday. Novemberwas particularly hard hit, slipping 13.6 cents to settle at $1.972.Weak October cash prices and follow-through selling by traders whohave elected to ignore and discount the threat of Hurricane Mitchwere reasons cited for the decline. Trading was active, with nearly150,000 contracts changing hands.

There was no calm before the storm on Thursday as the futuresmarket experienced another day of volatile, choppy trading astraders turned to televisions in trading rooms across the countryfor the direction and strike probabilities of Hurricane Georges.The October contract bounced back and forth throughout the tradingsession as the market digested the imminence of supply shut ins.That prompted the spot month to move 4.8 cents higher yesterday,settling at $2.179.

Associations representing the natural gas industry hailed thenomination of Bill Richardson, currently United Nations envoy, assecretary of energy to replace Federico Pena who leaves the post atthe end of this month. President Clinton announced his intention tonominate Richardson Thursday.

Industry concerns that FERC could lose one of its mostexperienced commissioners when his term expires at the end of thismonth were partially quelled late Tuesday when President Clintonannounced his intent to nominate Commissioner William L. Massey toanother term. His new term, which is subject to Senateconfirmation, would expire June 30, 2003.