March

The Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council is scheduled to decide Monday, March 10 on a final route for a proposed $94 million Northwest Natural Gas Co. pipeline in Oregon that has fallen under fierce opposition from not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) supporters.

Algonquin lifted Tuesday a Critical Notice posted Sunday that limited negative daily imbalances to a 2% tolerance. on March 2, 2003. The pipeline’s only restriction remaining in effect for Wednesday is that no due-shipper makeup gas is available anywhere on its system.

Pinnacle LNG, Inc., a subsidiary of AGL Resources, has announced an open season from Feb. 18 to March 14, 2003 to seek natural gas storage and terminal service customers for its liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant located in Trussville, AL, and connected to the Southern Natural Gas mainline.

Wednesday’s general market softness was merely a lull in this week’s upward march of prices. Nearly all points were back on the rise Thursday, with the exception of a few small downturns in the Rockies and at scattered other points. Most gains were in the teens, bracketed by some in single digits and others of 20 cents or more in the Northeast, led by Algonquin citygate spikes of about 60 cents that included a peak quote of $9.25.

This week’s upward march in prices didn’t end Wednesday but did come to a near-standstill. Only Rockies gains of 8-15 cents or so stood out from the vast majority of points that ranged from flat to up about a nickel. Most of those rose less than a nickel, and small declines at about half a dozen scattered points figured into the mix.

After reaching the lowest levels since early March, the gas futures market got a boost last week from a smaller than expected storage injection and a downward revision to prior storage data on Thursday, which provided just enough steam for the September contract to end the week closer to its weekly high of $2.80 than Wednesday’s low of $2.64. However, September only managed to eke out a small 1.6-cent gain on Friday, ending the day at $2.761, just above its daily low of $2.755. Volume was light at 38,527, compared to 95,207 on Thursday.

The Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Lease Sale 182 held on March 20 brought in $355.8 million from 489 high bids and a small amount of forfeited money. MMS Regional Director Chris Oynes said the majority of the bids were for tracts in shallow water rather than deepwater plays. However, deepwater tracts drew the highest single bids.

Transwestern has scheduled March 26-27 maintenance at the P-3 Compressor Station on its Panhandle Lateral. There will be zero flow at the Williams Canadian River and ANR-Red Deer points during the work.

March madness continued at the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday after the American Gas Association (AGA) announced that a whopping 140 Bcf was pulled from underground storage facilities last week. Despite coming at the high end of the 110-140 Bcf range of expectations, the withdrawal initiated a selling surge that dropped the April contract to $2.87 just moments following the release of the report. The April contract closed at $2.87, down 14.8 cents for the session and just off its $2.85 low etched just before the close.