Maintain

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced yesterdaythat it would require interruptible natural gas customers tomaintain a seven-day supply of their alternative fuel source onsite, or through a firm contractual arrangement. The action willhelp to make energy prices in New Jersey a little less volatilegoing into the heating season.

Americas Power Partners (APP) has teamed up with steam productand service provider Armstrong Service Inc. (ASI) to own, operate,maintain and improve the utility plant and systems for the H.J.Heinz food processing facility located in Muscatine, IA. Thecompanies signed the multimillion dollar agreement yesterday.

The California Electricity Oversight Board has called on FERC toorder the state Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) to maintainexisting bid caps on wholesale energy, ancillary services andreplacement reserves until the Commission completes its probe ofthe California bulk market, initiates reforms and finds the marketsto be “workably competitive.”

The softening that had begun in late trading Monday carried overto Tuesday’s activity, but the path back down wasn’t as steep asthe climb up.

Futures traders were unable to maintain upward momentum earlyyesterday after an initial push above the 40-day moving average toa high of $2.715. January futures fell back sharply in the morningand then traded sideways throughout the rest of the day to end down2.6 cents at $2.629. February lost 1.7 cents to settle at $2.609.The 12-month strip only lost eight-tenths of a cent.

Prices failed to maintain the upward momentum that had begun theweek, slipping lower by a nickel to a dime at nearly all pointsTuesday. Traders were unable to ignore the cumulative negativedemand effect of more than 40 cities setting all-time hightemperature records for the month of November over the previousweek. And although one marketer said the screen had little bearingon day-to-day cash pricing, the nickel-plus drop in futuresprovided no support for cash.

Texaco has halted the decline in its U.S. oil and gas productionand expects to maintain first quarter levels through the rest ofthe year, Comptroller George Batavik told analysts Wednesday.

Texaco has halted the decline in its U.S. oil and gas productionand expects to maintain first quarter levels through the rest ofthe year, Comptroller George Batavik told analysts Wednesday.

The drop in gas load that usually accompanies a weekendreduction of business activity failed to dampen the cash market’sbullishness Friday. Though a few points (El Paso-Permian andTrunkline-South Texas) eked out only penny upticks and CIG and Wahawere essentially flat, most markets achieved gains of 3-7 cents.Influencing factors were unchanged from earlier in the week,sources said: Western cold, Southern heat, a higher screen andelectric utilities using gas in peaking units while many nuclearand coal plants are down for refueling or other maintenance.