Fell

Spot prices at the Southern California border yesterday lostmomentum and fell back into the atmosphere at around $20/MMBtuafter holding early in the ethereal region above $40. The winterstorm that rocked the state earlier in the week moved eastward andthe initial shock of SoCalGas’ 90% balancing requirement, whichgoes into effect today in response to low storage levels, seemed tobe wearing off a little.

The drop in global energy industry transaction values to $303.6billion in 2000 from $360.2 billion a year earlier, was actually a”return to normal” following several mega-mergers in 1999,according to a John S. Herold Inc. study. The upstream globalmerger and acquisition transaction values totaled $112.2 billion in2000, down 16% from $152.9 billion in 1999.

The cash market fell across the board Friday but was hardly amodel of consistency. Declines ranged from barely 2-3 cents atscattered points to more than 20 cents at a few western points;most were between a nickel and about a dime. Activity was describedas quiet.

In a remarkably uniform display of softness, prices fell byabout a nickel Tuesday at nearly every point across the board.Rarely has the market been so consistent with the great majority ofdeclines clustered within the range of 3-7 cents and with nogeographical bias.

The axe fell last week on thousands more Exxon Mobil employeeswho will lose their jobs due to the merger that created the supermajor. The company said it will cut 16,000 jobs, about 15% of itsworkforce, by the end of 2002. Exxon and Mobil predicted job cutsof only 9,000 when they announced their merger a year ago. The $81billion deal was approved Nov. 30.

As expected, weekend prices took a steep plunge in Friday’strading as almost every point fell by around 20 cents or more. Thebiggest drops of almost 40 cents occurred at the SouthernCalifornia border and PG&E citygate, where both majordistributors had widely anticipated high-inventory OFOs in placefor Saturday.

Continuing a flurry of activity since its proposed merger withSempra Energy fell through (See related story), KN Energy was at itagain Friday as its marketing affiliate, KN Marketing, announced itwas selected to provide gas and fuel management services to a 600MW power plant in Elwood, IL. KN will supply 10 Bcf/year to thisplant at an undisclosed price. The Colorado-based company will alsomanage the plant’s fuel service, including supplying, balancing andmanaging storage and transportation.

Most points fell between a nickel and a dime Monday, draggeddown by the anchor of a weaker Henry Hub futures contract, sourcessaid. A chilly West was most resistant to the general softeningwith prices that tended to be flat to off only a couple of cents.

The August Nymex contract fell 3.4 cents to $2.389 on Monday,amid a day when an extremely light 22,000 estimated total contractschanged hands. “We went from 123,000 contracts on Friday to almostnothing today. There just ain’t nothing going on,” a traderlamented. The fourth-of-July is typically among the lowest demandperiods of the year, and because the holiday falls so close to thefirst of the month, many cash market traders termed up incrementalgas through July 7th during bidweek, several sources reported. As aresult, the Merc pit lacked solid participation from commercials,and a broker expects that to continue throughout the week.