Further

Citing anticipations of cold weather and operational conditions,MRT issued an OFO effective today until further notice. Thepipeline will interrupt all IT volumes and Authorized Overrun gasin excess of contract demand flowing north of the mainline’sGlendale (AR) Station. Firm customers must restrict mainlinevolumes to within their contracted zone entitlement and primarypath. MRT will have a zero tolerance for underdeliveries during theOFO but will continue to accept positive imbalance gas. The OFOsupersedes a System Protection Warning that took effect Wednesday(see Daily GPI, Dec. 15).

Due to forecasts of colder weather, a System Protection Warningtakes effect today until further notice for MRT’s mainline north ofthe Glendale (AR) Station. MRT recommended that customers withinterruptible and Authorized Overrun gas on the mainline re-sourcethose volumes to the East Line. The East Line is a lateral about 90miles long from Trunkline in central Illinois east to the St. Louisarea, connecting with NGPL along the way. If excess volumescontinue on the mainline, MRT said, it will issue an OFOrestricting that line to FT only.

HS Resources, based in San Francisco, is further growing itsposition in the Wattenberg Field area of the Denver-Julesberg Basinby buying Houston-based Kinder Morgan’s gathering system therealong with its interests in the Amoco-BP Wattenberg Gas ProcessingPlant and KN Wattenberg LLC, which owns the Wattenberg transmissionsystem, in a phased transaction.

Due to valve maintenance, Sonat shut in the Dalton (GA) #2delivery point Thursday until further notice.

Swing prices continued their downhill slide Friday, succumbingto the normal drop in weekend demand, a softer screen and lack offresh storm news. Except for Midwest citygates, where a warmingtrend was developing, virtually all eastern points fell by a dimeor more. Waha and the Permian Basin also experienced dime-plusdeclines, but other western points tended to fall only a nickel orso. Sources attributed the West’s relative firmness to heavy airconditioning and agricultural load in California and other states.

Cash prices rode the continuing tropical storm news and aninitially higher screen to further gains Wednesday, but there weresigns that the big run-up had just about run its course. Mostincreases in the East were between about a nickel and a dime. Whilethat range also held true in much of the West, northern Californiaonce again tended to outpace the general market with dime-or-moreupticks at Malin and the PG&E citygate.

Cash prices built further Tuesday on their early-week gains invirtually every market except Northern California. Factors behindthe firmness remained much the same as on Monday: a moderate screenincrease, a “stash it while you can” storage mentality and agradual warming trend in northern market areas. Price movementranged from flat on several Rockies pipes to about a nickel higherat many Gulf Coast and Midcontinent points.

A multi-million dollar acquisition last week by Cross TimbersOil Co. of Fort Worth, TX, further grew the company’s presence inthe Arkoma Basin and also put the producer in the 90% natural gascolumn.

NGPL reported experiencing an unexpected pipeline outageSaturday south of Station 304 on the Gulf Coast Mainline. Untilfurther notice NGPL is unable to flow volumes from six receiptpoints in Panola County, TX.