Kept

Prices kept moving higher in cash trading Wednesday, the official first day of autumn. Despite mild to cool weather prevailing in most areas, the market rode the momentum of a day-earlier screen spike of nearly 36 cents and Gulf of Mexico production shortfalls that remain slow in being eliminated.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice initiated Wednesday in effect through at least Thursday, but loosened the tolerance for negative daily imbalances from 15% to 25%. FGT said it has begun unscheduled maintenance on one of the two compressor units at the FGT/Tennessee Gas Carnes interconnect. The pipeline reduced Carnes capacity to 30,000 MMBtu/d starting with the Evening Cycle nominations for Friday, but later Thursday said operational conditions allowed flow above that level. “Even with horsepower unavailable, pressures are currently allowing for flow at near maximum capacities (60,000 MMBtu/d); thus, FGT will schedule volumes up to 60,000 MMBtu for the gas day of 08/13/04. For the gas day of 08/14/04, FGT will evaluate the operational/flow conditions to determine what volumes can be scheduled at this point, it said. Current estimates indicate that the unit will be down for two weeks.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice with 15% imbalance tolerance in effect through Saturday, then lifted it Sunday.

Pacific Gas & Electric kept the high-linepack OFO it had declared for Saturday in place through Sunday but loosened the positive imbalance tolerance from 9% to 12% Sunday, then canceled the OFO Monday.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice declared last Wednesday in effect through Friday and Saturday, loosening the negative imbalance tolerance from 15% to 20% for those two days, before ending the notice Sunday.

Northern Natural Gas kept a System Overrun Limitation in place Saturday and Sunday, then lifted it Monday. NNG said early Monday afternoon that a mechanical problem caused a force majeure situation at the Chatfield (MN) Compressor Station. Based on weather forecasts, there was potential for some level of curtailment on the LaCrosse/Tomah branchline as a result, NNG said. Preliminary indications are that the force majeure could last for up to a week, it added. See the bulletin board for a list of affected points on the LaCrosse/Tomah branchline.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice in effect over the weekend through at least Monday. The tolerance for negative daily imbalances was tightened Sunday to 15%, then returned to 20% Monday.

As sources had expected earlier, the back-and-forth pattern of cold waves kept a midweek rally limited to two days and led to an across-the-board price retreat Thursday. Only the Florida peninsula was still seeing highs above 70 that day, but prospects for a moderation trend going into the weekend pushed averages lower by about a nickel to as much as 35 cents.

Pacific Gas & Electric kept a systemwide high-inventory OFO in effect through at least Thursday, but loosened the tolerance for positive daily imbalances from zero to 6%.