Longer

It took three decades, but an American natural gas producer has finally scored a coup that shows the walls of Canadian economic nationalism have crumbled.

Unable to resist the weakness of weather fundamentals any longer, combined with facing the usual demand dropoff over a weekend, swing prices registered double-digit losses at nearly all points Friday. An Overnominations Day declaration for Saturday by Southern California Gas caused the biggest drop of about half a dollar at border-SoCal Gas.

As exploration and production companies scurry to extract higher volumes of natural gas from the ground to meet the nation’s voracious demand, coalbed methane production in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and southern Montana continues to increase as conservative estimates of the basin’s reserves from the late 1980s through the mid-1990s continue to fall by the wayside, according to Energy and Environmental Analysis (EEA).

It is often said that it takes markets longer to rise than itdoes for them to fall and that adage was never more true thanyesterday in the natural gas pit as prices finally recouped thelast of the massive $1.411 price erosion seen a week ago. Aftergapping higher on the open, the February contract shuffled mostlysideways Monday as traders awaited fresh medium-range weatherforecasts. At the closing bell, the prompt month was 42.8 centsstronger at $9.689.

Vector Pipeline began operations Friday, completing pipelineconstruction and the start of transportation service on a newnatural gas pipeline system. The 285-mile 42-inch pipeline connectsto 59 miles of existing 36-inch pipe leased line in Michigan, andcrosses 1,900 tracts of land in the United States and Canada.

Ending concerns that related pipelines might not start serviceon the same day, both the Alliance and Vector pipelines opened forbusiness on Friday.

Montana Power Co. is no longer in the oil and gas business, after closing last week on the sale of some of its energy assets to PanCanadian Petroleum Ltd. for $475 million in a combination of cash and credit. The assets include oil, natural gas and gas liquids exploration, production and marketing companies in the United States and Canada.

Montana Power Co. is no longer in the oil and gas business,after closing the sale of some of its energy assets to PanCanadianPetroleum Ltd. for $475 million in a combination of cash andcredit. The assets include oil, natural gas and gas liquidsexploration, production and marketing companies in the UnitedStates and Canada.

As an interim measure prior to California’s state-charteredelectric transmission grid operator (Cal-ISO) making longer-termchanges, its board of governors adopted by a 13-10 vote lastThursday a load differentiated price cap promoted by a consumeradvocate representative on the badly splintered stakeholder board.The action drew swift criticism from generators through theirWashington, DC-based association.