Industrial

Based on a survey of 850 local gas distributors, industrial companies, power companies, producers and other marketers, Oneok, ConocoPhillips, BP, Sempra and Coral Energy were the top five companies in Mastio & Co.’s customer satisfaction ranking of major gas marketers, but the smaller regional marketers played a much more prominent role last year than in previous years, the St. Joseph, MO-based research firm said.

An absence of severe weather threats, lower industrial load over a weekend, and the screen’s previous-day quarter decline set the stage for further mostly moderate softening in a sedate Friday market. A small uptick in Tennessee Zone 6 ran contrary to losses at all other points ranging from less than a nickel to nearly 30 cents.

Based on a survey of 850 local gas distributors, industrial companies, power companies, producers and other marketers, Oneok, ConocoPhillips, BP, Sempra and Coral Energy were the top five companies in Mastio & Co.’s customer satisfaction ranking of major gas marketers, but the smaller regional marketers played a much more prominent role last year than in previous years, the St. Joseph’s, MO-based research firm said.

Domestic consumption of natural gas fell by an estimated 2.6% during 2003 due largely to the high gas prices that destroyed demand in the industrial and electric power sectors, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook for January.

As one of its primary segments among large industrial customers needing energy services, San Diego-based Sempra Energy Solutions announced Thursday it had secured another series of four multi-year, multi-million-dollar merchant energy services contracts with federal facilities in four states — California, Colorado, Florida and Utah — and Puerto Rico. In total, the contracts are estimated to be worth $46.5 million, the company said.

Domestic consumption of natural gas fell by an estimated 2.6% during 2003 due largely to the high gas prices that destroyed demand in the industrial and electric power sectors, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Short-Term Energy Outlook for January.

Prices relied on Monday’s return of industrial load after the weekend and perceptions of hotter weather later this week in some locations to realize mostly moderate rebounds from Friday’s plunges. Eastern points tended to range from down a few pennies to 20 cents higher. The West recorded similar movement at some points but also saw even larger gains close to half a dollar at the Southern California border and PG&E citygate and around 30 cents or so in the San Juan Basin.

Four leading natural gas producer and industrial groups last Thursday pledged unwavering support for the continuation of published gas price indexes, while at the same time expressing their disdain for a governmental takeover of the process. Similarly, two Sempra Energy utilities favored improving the price indexes rather than tossing them out and starting from scratch.

Accent Energy Group LLC (Accent Energy) has purchased the remaining 1,700 commercial and industrial gas customer accounts from Nicor Energy, a retail energy marketer owned equally by Nicor, Inc. and Dynegy. The customers are Nicor’s last since its decision to exit the retail marketing business.