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Less than 24 hours after state regulators gave approval for sale of added storage gas supplies, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility Friday announced an open season (Nov. 13-26) for 8.12 Bcf of gas from two of its underground storage facilities. As part of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) actions last Thursday, this designated amount of formerly cushion gas was freed to be sold on the open market, in addition to 5.88 Bcf of gas retained for bundled core and noncore customers.

Less than 24 hours after state regulators gave approval for sale of added storage gas supplies, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility Friday announced an open season Nov. 13-26, 2002, for 8.12 Bcf of supplies in two of its underground storage facilities.

After spending less than 5 minutes below $4.00 last Friday, natural gas futures rebounded convincingly yesterday as traders were once again hit with another bullish weather forecast to start the week. The resultant buying pressed prices higher throughout the trading session. A round of locally-led short-covering put a bow on it for bulls, as the November contract rallied at the close to settle at $4.176 on its penultimate trading day, up 14.8 cents from Friday and just a few ticks off its $4.19 high Monday. Considering it was the day before expiration, trading was light as just 84,638 contracts changed hands.

Ready once again to jump into the U.S. power markets after a less than triumphant start, Nymex Chairman Vincent Viola said Friday that the exchange plans to launch a revamped electricity futures contract for the PJM interconnection as soon as January. Viola, in Houston for a press briefing on the plan, told participants that once the PJM contracts are up and running, the long-range plan is to revive electricity contracts nationwide.

Flatness or small declines of about a nickel or less dominated the market Wednesday. Sharply higher San Juan/Rockies numbers, along with mild firmness at Northern California points, constituted the primary exceptions to the overall price trend.

Less than a week after the company announced it was acquiring a natural gas processing plant, Calgary-based Cavell Energy Corp. said Tuesday that it has finalized plans to build its first gas plant in the Shackleton area of southwest Saskatchewan. According to the company’s plans, the initial phase of the plant will have a capacity of 5.5 MMcf/d, with room for expansion.

El Paso Natural Gas last week said it awarded 220 MMcf/d of turned-back capacity, or less than a third of the 725 MMcf/d that was available, to mostly contract-demand (CD) shippers on its system, with few full-requirements (FR) shippers showing any interest. Nevertheless, El Paso assured converting FR service customers it still had more than enough capacity left to meet their transportation needs.

Second-quarter natural gas production fell only slightly — 0.7% — from the first quarter of 2002, according to a survey by Raymond James Energy, but the consulting firm is nevertheless predicting full-year results will be in line with its previous prediction of a minus 5-6%.

In the midst of less cheerful news this month, Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. Thursday asked the Oregon Public Utilities Commission for a 7.1% decrease in its natural gas rates for the 80,000 customers it serves in that state. It is the second gas decrease this year, reflecting the downturn overall in wholesale natural gas prices.