Manage

The cash market both calmed down and went further down in mostcases in Thursday’s activity. A majority of points ranged from flatto about 30 cents lower. The notable exceptions were declines ofabout 40 cents or more in California and Transco/Texas Easterncitygates in the Northeast, and on the opposite side of the coinwere gains in the Pacific Northwest and on some Rockies pipes.

The American Gas Association (AGA) has formed a new LeadershipCouncil to serve as a forum for member company senior executives tomanage and participate in association activities. The council willinclude senior executives not serving on the AGA board.

Fresh off a neat, 13-cent gain Monday, the futures marketrumbled higher yesterday as fundamental traders braced for asizable storage withdrawal today and technicians set their sightson resistance levels from late last year.

Conoco continued an arrangement first forged in 1981 by announcing a definitive agreement yesterday to manage DuPont’s gas supply needs. DuPont is one of the largest U.S. industrial gas consumers and Conoco’s largest supply customer. Neither the financial terms nor energy volumes were disclosed.

CMS Marketing, Services and Trading, (CMS-MST) has madesignificant additions to its energy services operations recently,signing a five-year energy management agreement with Chicago-basedBank One Corp. last week and expanding its national presencethrough the purchase of Viron Corp. from York International in lateSeptember.

In its second major energy services move in the past five days,CMS Marketing, Services and Trading, (CMS-MST) announced afive-year energy management agreement with Chicago-based Bank OneCorp., the nation’s fifth largest bank holding company. Neither thefinancial terms of the deal, nor Bank One’s energy output weredisclosed.

Adding to gains achieved in the Monday evening Access tradingsession, the May contract continued higher yesterday morning asbulls confidently bolstered their long positions. However, recentgains notched by natural gas have not come without a fight andTuesday was no different. After topping out at $2.17, the promptmonth reversed direction in the afternoon, nearly erasing itsadvance by the close. May finished at $2.136, up 0.8 cents on theday.

The Millennium Pipeline Project and Southern Energy New York,the company that manages Southern Energy’s New York assets, jointlyannounced Wednesday a plan to build an extension from the proposedMillennium Pipeline to the Bowline Power Plant in Rockland County,NY. The interconnect will be counted as an addition to Millenniumwhich still awaits FERC approval.

Coral Energy became the principal gas supplier to LDCMountaineer Gas Co. through an agreement giving Coral management ofvirtually all of Mountaineer’s total firm transportation andstorage entitlements. Effective Nov. 1, Coral will begin supplyingMountaineer, West Virginia’s largest LDC, about 25 Bcf/year forthree years. Gas will be supplied at a fixed price. Local gassupplies are not part of the deal and will continue to be managedby Mountaineer.