Given

El Paso Natural Gas has given up on its first attempt tode-bottleneck the constrained Bondad System in the San Juan Basin(see Daily GPI, Oct. 19), but is approaching FERC again in hopesthat a second try will be more fruitful in adding capacity to apoint that some gas traders sarcastically call “Bondage.”

The role the Natural Gas Supply Association “provides is unique,and our members haven’t given us any indication that they areanything but pleased,” said Rebecca McDonald, this year’s chair ofthe organization and the future senior vice president of global gasmarketing for BP-Amoco. McDonald was questioned by NGI aboutpersistent rumors that NGSA, which originally was created topromote the decontrol of natural gas, would be disbanded and itsfunctions rolled into the American Petroleum Institute. McDonaldsaid the two organizations address very different issues, with APIfocusing on upstream oil and gas and NGSA involved mainly indownstream activities. “NGSA has done a good job with a difficulttask.”

FERC has given the go-ahead to a major project that wouldincrease the deliverability of Jackson Prairie Storage by 300MMcf/d and would more than double its best-efforts withdrawal rate,both of which will boost the peak-shaving capabilities of thestorage provider.

FERC has given the go-ahead to a major settlement that attemptsto resolve the looming decontracting problem on Texas EasternTransmission’s (Tetco) system while offering a significant ratereduction to its customers.

Given mild weather, bearish storage levels and the normal slumpin weekend demand, many traders were surprised Friday to see nearlyall Eastern points stay flat or go up as much as 3-4 cents. ThoughGulf Coast numbers were “falling hard” near deadline after startingseveral cents higher, a producer surmised they were being held upat first by “hurricane hype.” Other sources also mentioned that asthe reason for the relative Eastern strength, saying they couldthink of no other explanation.

Given the “slim to non-existent gross margins” for marketers,retail gas unbundling at the state level has been a “minimalsuccess” at best so far, according to the results of a study ofmore than 100 LDCs released earlier this week.

Given the recent price spikes in the Midwest and Californiaelectricity markets, a California power agency has called onCongress to take the necessary steps to rein in unleashed marketpower when it takes up restructuring legislation next year.

Given the level of opposition south of the border, theInterstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) said itsplans to forego for the next couple of years its efforts topersuade Mexico to lift its tariff on natural gas.

Inadequate reserve replacement last year should set off an alarmin the gas industry given continuing increases in gas demand,according to a new report by Arthur Andersen and John S. HeroldInc. Proved domestic gas reserves were essentially unchanged in1997 despite a 24% increase in extensions and discoveries to 10.1Tcf, the highest level of drillbit gas reserve additions in thefive-year study period, according to the study titled U.S. UpstreamPerformance Trends. The study noted, however, that negative reserverevisions of 1 Tcf, including a 623 Bcf downward revision by EEXCorp. and smaller downward revisions by Amoco, Mobil and PioneerNatural Resources, are included in the figures.