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After several successive days of stagnation, the cash marketfinally was able to use a little bit of screen support andexpectations of colder weather moving into major market areas toget out of its rut Tuesday. Prices ranged from flat in theSouthwest basins to more than a nickel higher at New Englandcitygates and for intra-Alberta and several related western points.Most quotes rose between 3 and 5 cents.

Avista Energy, Avista Corp.’s trading and marketing affiliate,has decided to head west to find its fortune. The unit announced achange of corporate direction last week and will now embark on awestern-region based energy marketing and trading effort as opposedto its former national focus.

Avista Energy, Avista Corp.’s trading and marketing affiliate,has decided to head west to find its fortune. The unit announced achange of corporate direction yesterday and will now embark on awestern-region based energy marketing and trading effort, asopposed to its former national focus.

Not only did FERC yesterday find that El Paso Natural Gas’controversial methods for allocating capacity at delivery points”may be unjust and unreasonable,” but it expanded the scope of thereview to include the pipeline’s allocation methods and poolingprocedures at all of its receipt points.

Although the cash market was set to fall significantly Fridayand did not disappoint, many traders were uniform in theirassertion that it could have been worse. A rising futures screen inthe afternoon combined with a bullish National Weather Service six-to 10-day forecast to cause both late jumps in cash prices andanticipation of further increases this week.

Although there are still proposals crowding the queue for newnatural gas-fired merchant power plants in California, the statehas lost a lot of its luster because of time-consuming sitingapprovals, environmental set-asides and a flawed pricing systemthrough the state power exchange (PX), according to a panel ofregulators and power plant developers.

Although there are still proposals crowding the queue for newnatural gas-fired merchant power plants in California, the statehas lost a lot of its luster because of time-consuming sitingapprovals, environmental set-asides and a flawed pricing systemthrough the state power exchange (PX), according to a panel ofregulators and power plant developers.

Calling it the largest reserve discovery in the AppalachianBasin, Columbia Natural Resources (CNR), a Columbia Energy Groupsubsidiary, said it found reserves with estimated production of 50MMcf/d while drilling deep into a sub-basin in Roane County, WV.The exploratory test well was drilled to a depth of 10,300 feet inthe Trenton-Black River Formation on the Vineyard Ridge prospect.

Inability to find a buyer for its “high-quality” Gulf of Mexicoproperties pushed Miami-based Forcenergy over the edge into Chapter11 bankruptcy last week, Chairman Stig Wennerstrom said in aconference call. At least one other debt-laden producing companycould follow in its footsteps.