February

Buoyed by forecasts suggesting February may be just as cold as January, the natural gas futures market notched a second straight daily advance Tuesday as traders continued to eschew the short side of the ledger. However, the market remains in a state of flux technically, prompting some observers to believe the market will have a difficult time rebounding from current levels to post new highs.

Texas Eastern said Tuesday afternoon it would complete repairs by Wednesday on a leak discovered in late February (see Daily GPI, Feb. 24) in the Mississippi River crossing of the M-1 24-inch line east of the Oran (MO) Compressor Station. The pipeline will begin accepting nominations for Thursday’s gas day for flow through Oran.

TransCanada reported that Great Lakes ended Wednesday its declaration of force majeure that was announced in late February (see Daily GPI, Feb. 27 and March 10) and affected deliveries to TransCanada. As a result, TransCanada terminated its own force majeure declaration to firm shippers.

The market oversight division of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas(PUCTT) has launched an investigation into bid activity in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) markets late last month to determine whether any market participant exacerbated significant power price spikes seen at that time.

The always interesting Pacific Northwest promised in the opening days of February to get even more interesting from a hydroelectric energy standpoint with a near-term “dumping” of cheap hydro supplies only to be followed by well-below-normal water runoffs in the spring, all of which adds up to the potential for higher wholesale power prices, exports and natural gas demand in the region, according to Boston-based consultant Energy Security Analysts Inc. (ESAI). The Western Energy Coordinating Council (WECC) flagged the ESAI analysis in its latest “market watch report.”

There will be no shutdown of the Hobart Ranch Processing Plant in Hemphill County, TX as anticipated in a February bulletin board posting, Williams Gas Pipeline-Central said Friday. Duke Energy Field Services has sold the plant to Enbridge Pipelines (Texas Gathering) Inc., which is currently processing gas at Hobart Ranch, the pipeline added. Thus the physical interconnect on Central remains available for nominations.

After a year of 6% gas production growth in 2001, Canadian gas production growth in January and February is beginning to slow down. Canadians may be unable to make significant gains without another Ladyfern-type find, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll.

After a year of 6% gas production growth in 2001, Canadian gas production growth in January and February is beginning to slow down. Canadians may be unable to make significant gains without another Ladyfern-type find, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll.

The February aftermarket got off to a fairly strong start Thursday with swing quotes up a few cents from end-of-January levels in most cases and generally about 15-20 cents ahead of apparent monthly indexes.