Following

At first glance Monday was one of those not-too-often cases inwhich “following the screen” did not apply to the cash market. Butas a Northeastern buyer pointed out, an initially flat futuresshowing allowed many physical-gas markets to post gains of a nickelor so, and by the time the screen got around to diving by about 7cents, it was too late to affect a lot of cash deals. But late cashtrading did reflect the weakness in the Nymex pit, said a producerwho found late Henry Hub and Katy sales down 3-4 cents fromearly-morning levels.

So far cash prices are following the script surrounding theFourth of July holiday weekend. As virtually every trader hadexpected, the market fell hard Thursday. “There were just no buyersout there,” complained one marketer. It was a fairly quiet daysince some gas had already been committed for the weekend onWednesday or earlier, and many people were anxious to get it doneand clear out early for the holiday, said another source.

The $6.2 billion merger of Enova Corp. and Pacific Enterprisesfinally became official last week following approval of theSecurities and Exchange Commission. The merger creates SempraEnergy, a new San Diego-based Fortune 500 energy services holdingcompany with 12,000 employees, $10 billion in assets and thelargest regulated utility customer base in the nation.

The cash market took something of a breather Tuesday followingthe breathtaking uprising that began the week. Several pointscontinued to rise but by decidedly smaller amounts than on Monday.Flat to slightly higher was the general rule, but Rockies numberswere falling as supply outages neared an end and mild weather inthe Western U.S. continued to depress demand. Malin and theSouthern California border also fell by small amounts.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is moving ahead with the sale offive additional power plants, following the California PublicUtilities Commission’s decision this week to lift a temporary haltto the plant auction in response to an appeal by local governmentofficials and a citizens’ action group in San Francisco where twoof the plants are located. PG&E is now authorized to reviewpreliminary bids (“nonbinding expressions of interest”) frompotential buyers.

Following an extensive four-month, $700,000 review of FERC’sprocedures and organization by staff and Andersen Consulting, theCommission yesterday formally announced its changes in structureand regulatory approach. The initiative, which includes creatingseveral new offices, efforts to increase pre-filing activities andnew regulatory approaches designed to speed up processing ofapplications, will be made effective over the next 18 months.

As expected following the landmark gas accord in Canada in thefirst week of April, it has been smooth sailing for the merger ofTransCanada and Nova Corp. The Alberta Energy and Utilities Boardgave its blessing to the deal this week. And the companies said theCanadian Competition Bureau has completed its review of thetransaction without requesting alterations.

Following a tough first quarter in which earnings fell short of1Q97 levels by about $32 million, Sonat Inc. announced plans for amassive restructuring of its E&P properties, including the saleof 19% of its gas reserves, or 487 Bcf, and 24% of its production,or 200 MMcf/d.

The following is a clarification of a story titled “NGC’sCapacity Posting,” which ran in Daily GPI, April 22: Thecalculations and conclusions described in the story were totallythose of Michael J. Harris of the Reed Consulting Group ascontained in a FERC filing made by the producers protesting the NGCcapacity contracts on El Paso. The Prebon Energy brokerage housemade no predictions. A footnote to the filing says Prebon, whichhas offices in Jersey City, NJ, and Houston, supplied futurequotes at a specific time – 11:30 a.m. on March 30 – of the SanJuan Basin-California border basis differential. The quoted remarksregarding the expected San Juan-SoCal basis differential for thefuture and the attractiveness of the NGC capacity to other shipperswere those of Harris and the Reed Consulting group. Further Prebonsays it did not give basis information to Mr. Harris or the ReedConsulting Group but that the basis information attributed toPrebon was supplied by one of the parties to the filing. NGIregrets the error.