Leaving

Leaving the so-called “race for LNG” to the sprinters in the southern part of the state, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. indicated Monday it is willing to take its time, absent any strong competitive pressure, in siting a proposed import terminal in the northern half of California. The project also would include a power plant and transmission pipeline infrastructure.

A cold wave had almost completed its domination of the national weather picture, leaving only a sliver of the South from North Carolina through South Texas — along with parts of the desert Southwest — still experiencing highs in the 70s. The widespread heating load, augmented by residual support from Wednesday’s energy futures spikes, kept cash prices on the rise Thursday.

Former Hurricane Isabel was leaving a messy legacy in the Mid-Atlantic; mostly moderate to cool forecasts dominated the rest of the weather picture; an extra-big storage injection report had its usual day-later impact on the cash market; and of course trading was for the weekend, when industrial load normally slacks off. Small wonder, then, that Thursday’s declines gained downhill momentum and racked up further losses ranging from about a dime to 35 cents Friday.

Tropical Storm Bill was leaving relatively little shut-in offshore production in its wake Monday afternoon as it moved over the Louisiana coast. Meanwhile, flatness at the Chicago citygate and Dawn were the only significant exceptions in an overall stronger launch of the July aftermarket. Otherwise, points ranged from up about a nickel to nearly 40 cents higher. A majority of the gains were in the range of 10-20 cents.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. announced Monday its 100% owned and operated Falcon field in the western deepwater Gulf of Mexico began producing from two wells at approximately 185 MMcf/d and 650 b/d of condensate on March 15. The Falcon field start-up was the second of five major projects the company expects to bring online by early 2004.

Algonquin lifted Monday a long-running ban on accepting due-shipper imbalance make-up nominations, leaving no restrictions in place on its system.

There was a lot of contrast in price movement Thursday. After leaving the rest of the market way behind with numbers that had topped $20 in some cases the day before, Northeast citygates started to come back down to earth with multi-dollar plunges. Meanwhile, most other points (outside the Rockies) soared by about 30 cents or more. Some Gulf Coast pipes saw dollar-plus advances, with others there and in the Midcontinent rising nearly a dollar.

UBS Warburg Energy, which launched a domestic energy trading arm when it took over Enron Corp.’s decimated energy trading platform earlier this year, has decided to shutter its Houston offices and consolidate operations in Stamford, CT.

UBS Warburg Energy, which launched a domestic energy trading arm when it took over Enron Corp.’s decimated energy trading platform earlier this year, has decided to shutter its Houston offices and consolidate operations in Stamford, CT.