Find

Traders returned Monday from a long holiday weekend to find thecash market about as weak or even weaker than it had been prior toChristmas, depending upon the market area. A warming trend andsofter futures were cited as reasons. The Gulf Coast, last week’sbargain basement region for gas, was only dropping a nickel to adime. But Western points, which had been riding high on the basisof having the nation’s chilliest weather, fell anywhere from about20 cents (PG&E citygate) to as much as 50 cents (Stanfield).

Dynegy has agreed to manage all of Rochester Gas &Electric’s (RG&E) gas supply, transportation and storageassets, and help find ways to cut costs and optimize assets.

PanCanadian Petroleum subsidiary PanCanadian Gulf of MexicoInc., made a deep-water oil and gas discovery in the Gulf of Mexicothat it likened to Shell’s prolific Auger Field. The Llanodiscovery well, in Garden Banks Block 386 about 137 miles offshoreLouisiana, drilled to a record depth for the Gulf of 27,864 feet.The sands at Llano correlate closely to similar sands encounteredby Shell Deepwater Development in the Auger Field, less than 15miles to the southwest, containing a reported 220 million barrelsof oil equivalent reserves. Auger has reported reserves of 220million Boe with approximate production of 100,000 barrels of oiland 300 MMcf of gas per day.

Traders returned Tuesday from a long weekend to find a much morerobust May cash market than they had left behind Friday. Many hadbeen impressed by the strong recovery of the June Henry Hub futurescontract Friday after it briefly dipped under $2, a Texas marketersaid. “We were immediately up to Friday’s highs as trading begantoday.” Weather demand wasn’t much of a factor as cool butcomfortable temperatures reign in the Midwest and Northeast marketareas, he added, “but there were still plenty of buyers up there.”