Market

Coastal’s ANR Pipeline is continuing its battle against aproposed pipeline that would challenge its dominance of theWisconsin market. ANR is calling for backers of the GuardianPipeline project to make costs of the project public to provewhether it would reduce Wisconsin gas prices.

To say the weather had an impact on the natural gas futuresmarket last week might be the biggest understatement of the newmillennium. After all, not a day went by that neither forecasters’predictions, nor ever-changing weather itself did not play intotraders’ decisions. Add to that the fact different independent andgovernmental forecasting agencies were not always in agreement. Itall came to a head last Friday when prices soared early in the dayin anticipation of the return of cold temperatures in the Northeastfor the weekend, only to come crashing down that afternoon upon therelease of a fresh medium-range forecast for this week. The Marchcontract was the hardest hit by the sell-off, tumbling 2.2 cents tofinish at $2.57 Friday. Less dependent on the near-term forecast,the outer months managed to hold onto small advances into theclose.

Prices continued to exhibit mild firmness Thursday, and sourceswere able to point out several contributing factors: a risingscreen, colder weather than expected both in western Canada andpushing southward into the central U.S., and Wednesday afternoon’sbullish storage report.

Sonat ended Monday an OFO Type 3 that was implemented Jan. 21for seven market-area groups.

Shortly after canceling an Overage Alert Day notice (see Daily GPI,Feb.1), Florida Gas Transmissionreported experiencing enough market-area demand to reinstate thenotice Tuesday east of Station 13 in northern Florida. As with theearlier one, the OFO carries a 6% tolerance for negative imbalances.

Reliant is under a Critical Period operational alert due tosevere weather in the system’s market area. Effective today no SBSrate schedule storage withdrawals will be allowed until furthernotice.

The uphill run of the overall market was still going for themost part Wednesday, but at a considerably slower pace than the daybefore as several areas anticipated at least a brief reprieve fromsevere winter weather.

Calpine Corp. of San Jose, CA, plans to invest $750 million ingeneration to serve Florida’s wholesale power market. The companywill manage its southeastern activities from a new office to beopened in Tampa. Calpine will develop two gas-fired energy centers,including the 1,080 MW Blue Heron Energy Center, to be located inIndian River County outside Vero Beach, and the 540 MW OspreyEnergy Center, to be located in the Auburndale adjacent toCalpine’s existing power facility. Together, the proposed energycenters will produce enough electricity to power nearly two millionFlorida households. The Blue Heron Energy Center will produce up to1,080 MW of electricity and represents an investment ofapproximately $500 million. The $250 million Osprey Energy Centeris designed to generate 540 MW . Construction is planned for 2001,with the Osprey project slated for operation in early 2003, andBlue Heron in mid-2003.

Transco continues to ratchet upward IT availability into itsZone 6 market-area pool. Effective today until further notice, thepipeline said Monday, 100,000 dth/d each of interruptible capacitywill be available through the Linden (NJ) Regulator Station and forLeidy Line deliveries downtstream of the Centerville (NJ) RegulatorStation. It will offer another 100,000 dth/d of IT between Stations90 and 180 in Tiers I and II, but zero will be available in TierIII (Station 180 through East).