General

The Northeast differentiated itself from the rest of the marketyet again yesterday. Contrary to Friday’s results when manyNortheast points gained more than 20 cents, however, theNortheast’s attention-grabbing price activity yesterday felldecidedly on the bearish side as Transco Zone 6-NY fell $1 andTetco M3’s average dropped from the high $3.20’s to $3.

As part of a general rate increase Questar Gas is seeking fromthe Utah Public Service Commission, the company wants to recovercosts of supporting the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.While Questar says the Olympics increase — $500,000 per year forfour years — is only a sliver of the $22.5 million requested,consumer advocates are howling, saying it’s an unauthorized tax tosupport the games.

Most cash prices were flat to a few cents higher Wednesday, butthere was considerable variation among specific market areas. Heavydrafting of the NOVA system led to increases of a dime or more inintra-Alberta quotes and at such related points as Sumas andStanfield. On the other hand, Appalachia/Northeast points werefalling by about a nickel or more after Northeast citygates haddisplayed the greatest price strength earlier in the week.Temperatures remained above freezing for the most part in theNortheast and Midwest, and warmer weather is predicted to startmoving in today.

Attorney General Janet Reno and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) Administrator Carol M. Browner have urged Capitol Hilllawmakers not to approve legislative language that would exemptcoal-fired utilities from legal action for their alleged violationsof the Clean Air Act (CAA).

First Energy has won a whopper $15 million power supply contractwith the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) coveringdeliveries to 843 federal accounts in New Jersey, including theStatue of Liberty and Ellis Island, U.S. landmarks operated by theNational Park Service.

Despite a leveling off of the general cash market Thursday, inno way did it signify that the recent price slide was coming to anend, sources said. Instead, there was a consensus that weekendnumbers will be performing an ugly swan dive today. Chiefly therewill be the influence of Thursday’s dime-plus screen drop, whichoccurred for the most part after cash business had been completed,several traders said. In addition, quite a few pipelines eitherhave high-linepack OFOs already in place or are expected to issuethem today as storage injection capabilities are highly constrainedon nearly every system. And although it was getting decidedlychillier Thursday in the Midwest and Northeast market areas, theweather still wasn’t cold enough to generate any great amount ofheating load.

McMoRan (MMR) Exploration Co., Phosphate Resource PartnersLimited Partnership (PLP) and its administrative managing generalpartner IMC Global Inc. (IGL) said PLP and IGL have resolved anddismissed with prejudice their lawsuit against MMR and four formerdirectors of Freeport-McMoRan Inc.

First Energy has won a whopper $15 million power supply contractwith the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) coveringdeliveries to 843 federal accounts in New Jersey, including theStatue of Liberty and Ellis Island, U.S. landmarks operated by theNational Park Service.

A Williams Gas Pipeline executive last week departed from theinterstate pipeline industry’s general support for straight-fixedvariable (SFV) rate design, suggesting instead a move to avolumetric design. He believes such a rate design will be essentialfor gas pipelines to meet the needs of power generators, and forthe industry as a whole to reach its goal of a 30 Tcf market