FERC’s pipeline marketing affiliate rule is about as effectiveas having a wolf guard the henhouse, says a Washington D.C. lawyerwho represents producers and independent marketers. Because ofescalating abuses in the market, he believes overhauling Order 497should be the first priority of the Commission in its post-Order637 dialogue with the natural gas industry.
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Prices on Either Side of Flat; Cal Border Dives on OFO
Having the merry month of May start today gave Friday’s tradingfor the weekend something of a split personality, but except for afew western points there was no need for a psychiatrist. There waslittle appreciable difference between prices for Saturday/Sundayand Monday-only in most cases, sources said.
PG&E Retrenchment Nets Solid First Quarter
Having sold unprofitable Texas natural gas businesses and begunto dispose of its unprofitable energy services business, PG&ECorp. reported an 80% increase in first quarter results, comparedto the year-earlier period, earning $284 million, or 79cents-per-share. Its slimmed-down national energy group now focusedon merchant power generation and trading contributed 16cents-per-share to those results, said CEO Robert Glynn, Jr.
PG&E Retrenchment Nets Solid 1Q
Having sold unprofitable Texas natural gas businesses and begunto dispose of its unprofitable energy services business, PG&ECorp. reported an 80% increase in first quarter results, comparedto the year-earlier period, earning $284 million, or 79cents-per-share. Its slimmed-down national energy group now focusedon merchant power generation and trading contributed 16cents-per-share to those results, said CEO Robert Glynn, Jr.
Transportation Notes
After having a customer-specific OFO in effect for Wednesdayonly, Pacific Gas & Electric issued a new customer-specific OFOfor Saturday and was projecting above-target linepack Saturdaythrough today. An unplanned outage prompted Transwestern toallocate San Juan Lateral volumes for the Intraday 1 cycle Friday,affecting 18 points.
Peoples, Enron Plan Generation for Chicago
Having made a partnership with the intent of serving the Chicagogas market late last year, Peoples Energy Corp. and Enron’s EnronNorth America Corp. (ENA) moved their attention to the Chicagopower generation market yesterday by announcing a commitment tojointly develop a portfolio of at least 800 MW.
Generally Flat Cash Prices Await New Guidance
The cash market, not having much in the way of new influencesother than a large drop in crude oil futures, got quieter Tuesdayin both activity level and price movement. Few points ranged anyfurther than 2-3 cents up or down from flat.
Transportation Notes
Northwest resumed accepting physical receipts Tuesday from the ClayBasin storage facility after having rejected them for Monday’s gasday. In a late Friday afternoon bulletin board posting, the pipelinesaid that due to an “inordinate amount” of liquid hydrocarbons stillbeing received from the Questar Pipeline-operated facility (see DailyGPI, Feb. 14), Northwest’s ability tomeet obigations for deliveries to downstream pipeline interconnects ormarkets was in jeopardy. Although no physical Clay Basin receipts wereallowed Monday, Questar and Pipeline agreed to limit non-physicalnominations to 80,000 Dth/d until further notice “subject toavailability of offsetting physical balancing receipts at anotherlocation” south of the Kemmerer (WY) Station. On Monday Northwestfield operation crews were able to complete removal of the condensateliquids that had built up at the Green River (WY), where afilter/separator previously was being overwhelmed by the liquids. Thatallowed Tuesday’s resumption of physical receipts, Northwest said, butshould liquids again start accumulating at unacceptable levels, itwill shut in Clay Basin receipts on 24 hours’ notice. Unlike what wasreported in the Feb. 14 Daily GPI, this time the notice could beissued on a weekend, Northwest said.
Ax Continues to Fall on TransCanada Assets, Jobs
TransCanada Pipelines put down the scalpel last week and took upthe ax. Having determined the path toward improved financial healthmust involve some painful surgery, the company decided to lop off15% of its asset base in exchange for expected proceeds of about$3.6 billion (net $3 billion), which will be used to pay down debt.It also decided to trim its dividend by a hefty 30% to $0.80/share.
Hurricane Is No Match for Screen’s Cash Depressant
Even having achieved hurricane status, Irene proved to have nomore “hype” for gas prices left in it. Cash quotes Thursday fell adime or more at most eastern points and a little bit less in theWest. Gulf Coast numbers tended to drop a nickel or so from theirearly morning highs, one trader said. That resulted in the anomalyof him getting identical $2.67 pricing for an early sale inTennessee Zone 0 (South Texas) and a late sale at Transco Station65 (South Louisiana).