Failed

The drop in gas load that usually accompanies a weekendreduction of business activity failed to dampen the cash market’sbullishness Friday. Though a few points (El Paso-Permian andTrunkline-South Texas) eked out only penny upticks and CIG and Wahawere essentially flat, most markets achieved gains of 3-7 cents.Influencing factors were unchanged from earlier in the week,sources said: Western cold, Southern heat, a higher screen andelectric utilities using gas in peaking units while many nuclearand coal plants are down for refueling or other maintenance.

A rate refund, refocusing and early retirement programs, plusboth failed and successful merger costs wiped out PacifiCorp’s 1998earnings of $300 million, leaving the company with a $55 millionloss for the year. In comparison 1997 earnings after special itemswere $641 million; they were $350 million before special items. Thecompany’s refocusing in 1998 and 1999 includes shutdown of itsenergy marketing business, the sale of TPC Corp., and of EnergyWorks, a joint venture with Bechtel, and the closing of its Turkishenterprises.

One year into electric deregulation, the benefits promisedconsumers by the California legislature have failed to materialize,making monopoly utilities the primary winners in the state’sderegulation game, according to San Francisco-based The UtilityReform Network (TURN), the state’s major utility consumer group.

El Paso said Friday its Waha (TX) GE turbine is off-line againdue to a failed coupling on the field gas compressor. If expeditedtemporary repairs over the weekend prove successful, the pipelinesaid, the unit is expected to return to service around Wednesday.Otherwise, a new coupling will be available around April 6; anothershutdown would be required for its installation. The IMLWAHA pointis limited to 65 MMcf/d during the outage.

One year into electric deregulation, the benefits promisedconsumers by the California legislature have failed to materialize,making monopoly utilities the primary winners in the state’sderegulation game, according to San Francisco-based TURN, TheUtility Reform Network.

After two brief rally efforts failed to produce higher prices,the futures market again came under selling pressure as moreprominent bearish fundamentals more than offset below-normal marketarea temperatures. And in a rare occurrence, the 4.1-cent loss seenin the prompt March contract was outpaced by more substantiallosses in the April, May, June and July contracts.

The usual demand fall-off associated with a holiday weekendfailed to prevent Friday’s cash market from rejecting the slightlysofter trend that had appeared to be developing Thursday. Insteadthe long-lasting trend of little to no price movement reasserteditself at nearly all points. A Western source said recent tradinghas been “like that movie Groundhog Day, because every morning Iwake up and the market is at the same place. The only difference isAndie McDowell [Bill Murray’s female co-star in the movie] has yetto show up.”

The futures market was poised to continue lower Wednesday, butafter a lower open failed to entice additional selling,short-covering became the feature of the day. That gave theDecember contract the opportunity it needed to trend into positiveterritory yesterday morning, before settling at $2.213 at theclosing bell. Estimated volume was 75,306.

Wednesday’s novelty of a homogenous market that had pricesrising in all regions failed to carry over into Thursday. Insteadtrading tendencies reverted to the previous pattern: generallysofter in the East and flat to a little higher at most Westernpoints. The biggest drops of about a dime occurred on theAppalachian pipes.