Halted

In response to the crisis taking place just a few hundred yards away at the World Trade Center and along with every other commodity exchange in the country, the New York Mercantile Exchange indefinitely suspended natural gas futures trading yesterday morning before the opening of the regular open-outcry session at 9:30 (EST). At that time, October futures were called to open just about unchanged from Monday’s $2.392 close. As of press time last night, Nymex had still not made an official announcement as to when it might reopen for trading. However, all three major stock exchanges will be closed today prompting some to suggest Nymex will follow suit.

On-again, off-again wrangling with natives over land claims and resource development has erupted yet again in an area undergoing a boom in gas exploration in northeastern British Columbia, setting back one gas project but not noticeably slowing down the overall pace of producer expansion.

On-again, off-again wrangling with natives over land claims and resource development has erupted yet again in northeastern British Columbia, setting back one natural gas project but not noticeably slowing down the overall pace of producer expansion.

Two weeks of marathon settlement talks on refunds for California electric customers came to a grinding halt at FERC yesterday, with neither side even coming close to resolving the contentious issue. While the state had insisted that it was owed $8.9 billion in alleged overcharges on electricity sales, the offers by the out-of-state generators and other suppliers came to less than one-ninth of that.

Texaco has halted the decline in its U.S. oil and gas productionand expects to maintain first quarter levels through the rest ofthe year, Comptroller George Batavik told analysts Wednesday.

Texaco has halted the decline in its U.S. oil and gas productionand expects to maintain first quarter levels through the rest ofthe year, Comptroller George Batavik told analysts Wednesday.

Sumas had the distinction Tuesday of being the first point tosurpass $3 pricing in the current winter heating season, althoughPG&E citygates had gotten as high as $2.92 in the second weekof November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 11). In super-volatile quotes thatranged from the $2.20 area to as high as $3.40 (one source said heheard a $3.50 deal got done), Sumas soared far above an overallmarket that had turned stagnant since Monday’s strong rebound.