Friday

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Friday it will resolve a civilcourt case between a group of oil companies, headed by BP AmocoProduction Co., and the Southern Ute Indian Tribe over rights androyalties to natural gas produced from coal in the San Juan Basin.The Supreme Court will hear arguments in April with a decision dueby the end of June.

Legislation with drop-dead dates for 100% gas and electricderegulation continued to march through the New Jersey GeneralAssembly Friday, as the state senate’s Economic Growth Committeeagreed to send a bill to both the senate and assembly floors for avote on Tuesday. If passed, the bill would force the state’s gasindustry to allow supply competition statewide starting Dec. 31 andstatewide electric generation competition starting Aug. 1. For itto become law, the bill needs to win a simple majority in bothhouses.

A major pipeline group fired off an angry letter Friday askingthe Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider a “policydecision” that would force pipelines to shell out at least $280million – money that would have to be diverted from expansionprojects – for “unproven” technology to meet a 90%-reduction targetfor nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.

Three of the four leading natural gas trade associations onFriday were said to be either definitely on board or “favorablyinclined” to jointly ask FERC for a second extension of thedeadline for industry comments on the major notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR) and notice of inquiry (NOI) issued in July[RM98-10, RM98-12]. A source indicated there was a “50-50 chance”the lone association holdout would sign on too. The joint request,which reportedly is being spear-headed by the Interstate NaturalGas Association of America (INGAA), would seek a six-monthextension of the current Jan. 22nd deadline, and could be filed atthe Commission as early as this week. A possible reason for themove is that one of the groups is trying to buy time to broker acompromise with the other three associations on a voluntary auctionproposal, the source said. This would make pipeline participationin capacity auctioning optional, as opposed to the mandatory routethat FERC seems to favor.

Three of the four leading natural gas trade associations onFriday were said to be either definitely on board or “favorablyinclined” to jointly ask FERC for a second extension of thedeadline for industry comments on the major notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR) and notice of inquiry (NOI) that were issued inJuly [RM98-10, RM98-12]. A source indicated there was a “50-50chance” that the lone association holdout would sign on too.

The cash market took a bit of a breather Friday from the uphillclimb that began last Tuesday. Weekend quotes ranged from minimallyhigher to nearly a dime lower, with most of the softnessconcentrated in the Midcontinent, Midwest citygates, Southwestbasins, northern and southern California borders and intra-Alberta.

The hypervolatility in swing deals done Friday for Nov. 1-2 madeit difficult to gauge where the cash market was moving Monday. Butthe overall mix of flat to about a dime or so up or down (includingjust about all points in between) amounted to a general wash thattilted a little bit to the negative side, sources said. Besides,they added, it was generally a quiet day for most traders as theytook stock of bidweek and prospects for the upcoming days.

Western Gas Resources said Friday it sold its Edgewood gasgathering system and related facilities to Dynegy Inc. for $6.1million, and sold production assets upstream of Edgewood and a 50%joint venture interest in Redman Smackover production project inEast Texas to Vintage Petroleum for $49.7 million. The proceedsfrom the two separate transactions total $55.8 million, and Westernsaid it expects to recognize a pre-tax gain of $1 million from thesales in the fourth quarter of 1998. Both transactions closed Oct.29 with effective dates of July 1, 1998 and Nov. 1, 1998,respectively.

After posting modest gains last Thursday, the futures marketagain succumbed to selling pressure Friday as traders tried to pushthe December contract below support at $2.25. But, $2.265 was asfar as the contract could plumb and the prompt month was left tosettle for the week at $2.275. Sources pointed to bearishfundamentals and weak, last-day prices as reasons for the decline.