Into

Phase I of Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s Mobile Bay Lateralexpansion went into operation last Saturday providing 350 MMcf/d ofcapacity from the Outer Continental Shelf to Station 82 and 214MMcf/d onshore from Station 82 to Transco’s mainline near Butler,AL. July 1 was the initially targeted in-service date.

FERC ventured into unknown territory yesterday to help Georgia’slargest gas utility implement retail unbundling behind its citygateon Nov. 1 but avoid costs stranded by retail competition. In afour-to-one vote, the Commission granted Atlanta Gas Light alimited one-year waiver of certain federal regulations, allowing itto allocate, rather than release under the regulated competitivebidding procedure, 102,100 Dth/d of capacity on Southern NaturalGas to marketers taking over gas sales on its distribution system.

The on-going inquiry into how to regulate pipelines operating onthe Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) took center stage at FERC lastweek, with interstate pipelines and natural gas producersresponding with proposals that are miles apart.

Metrocall Inc. of Alexandria, VA, announced it has entered intoa new two-year strategic marketing agreement with Washington Gas tooffer Metrocall pagers and services to the utility’s customer basein the Washington, D.C. and parts of Maryland.

June has ushered a familiar characteristic back into the naturalgas trading pit at Nymex: volatility. Natural gas and volatilityoften are spoken in the same breath. However, for periods thiswinter and spring, the dips and rallies that have drawn manytraders to natural gas have been largely suppressed. But now withsummer clsing in, June has been marked by choppy trading withweather bulls on one side and storage bears on the other. Analystsin the middle are mixed as to who will win the battle, but nearlyeveryone in the market agrees the “V” word is back to stay for awhile.

The July contract closed out the week on a positive note aslight short-covering and position squaring bolstered the market6.5-cents to settle at $2.035 on Friday. July was not the only bigwinner, with nearby August also coming to life. August was up 7.3cents bringing the 12-month strip to $2.329.

Retail energy service providers and marketers now have an addedpotential way to reach into California’s mass market residentialand small business customers by buying part of the utility billingenvelope space. Under new state regulatory rules, investor-ownedenergy utilities (IOUs) are opening access to their ubiquitousbills that are mailed regularly to millions of customers.

In what has become almost routine lately, the AGA’s report ofstrong injections into storage caused a wave of follow-throughselling Thursday. A lower open allowed the contract to slip beneathsupport to settle at $2.02. In doing so, the July contract fell anadditional 8.6 cents to settle at the contract’s lowest point since1997.

The rapid pace of gas injections into the nation’s storagefacilities this spring (9.4 Bcf/d, or 5.4 Bcf/d greater than overthe same period last year) and the current massive surplus ofstored gas (331 Bcf) compared to levels at the same time over thepast four years prompted Wefa Inc. to turn extremely bearish onspot prices. The additional storage this year is equal to 5% ofdemand for the remainder of the non-heating season, Wefa said inthe May edition of its Natural Gas Monthly.