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If so much coal-fired power generation hadn’t been bowing out to make room for gas-fired plants so far this year, the current gas supply glut would be a lot worse, according to analysts at Barclays Capital. They conceded in a research note Tuesday that coal-fired generation displacement has been much greater than they had thought it would be.

A major price rally that hadn’t seemed to be in the cards as the week began occurred Tuesday. Sources could see little reason for both cash and screen numbers shooting higher other than crude oil futures touching the $50/bbl level Monday and again Tuesday, with record daily settlements being established each day.

Quotes for a long weekend that hadn’t been anticipated before last Monday (see Daily GPI, June 8) dropped as expected Thursday. A few essentially flat points in the Gulf Coast got stirred into declines ranging from about a nickel to more than 30 cents.

Just in case someone hadn’t gotten the message, Ohio Gov. Robert Taft has issued an executive order, good through the end of his term in office in 2006, prohibiting the issuance of state permits to drill for oil and gas in Lake Erie.

If prices hadn’t been so abnormally high to begin with, it might have been considered a market meltdown. As it was, prices registered steep declines Friday that reached triple digits in the Northeast and at several other points. Rockies, Pacific Northwest and California quotes tended to see the smallest losses of 30-50 cents; otherwise it was rare for any point to fall by less than 60 cents.

Natural gas marketers, which hadn’t given the proposedgreenfield Independence Pipeline and SupplyLink expansion a secondlook in the past, have signed up for firm transportation capacityon the controversial Midwest-to-East Coast pipeline projects, withone noting the projects were more appealing this time around. Giventhis support from marketers, sponsors say they now have enoughbinding agreements to meet FERC demands and move forward with theirprojects.

Natural gas marketers, which hadn’t given the proposedgreenfield Independence Pipeline and SupplyLink expansion a secondlook in the past, have signed up for firm transportation capacityon the controversial Midwest-to-East Coast pipeline projects, withone noting the projects were more appealing this time around.

Traders resurrected a phrase they hadn’t been using very muchlately: “following the screen.” Like a rising tide that lifts allboats, the Henry Hub futures contract for September turned in astrong performance Wednesday and spurred moderate firmness in cashnumbers. In the absence of substantial change in marketfundamentals, there was little besides the Nymex pit for cashguidance, a marketer said.

Recent declines in natural gas bills would have been evengreater if it hadn’t been for one-time LDC restructuring charges,according to a Gas Research Institute study. Still LDCs have cutnon-gas costs substantially.