Market

DPL Inc. announced it has sold its financial interest in MarketHub Partners (MHP) to a subsidiary of NiSource for $29 million incash. This sale follows DPL’s recent announcement of the sale ofits natural gas retail distribution business to Indiana Energy. MHPis a natural gas storage company headquartered in Houston. DPL wasrequired to separate its electric business units with the Julypassage of Ohio electric restructuring legislation. In so doing,the company said it was going to explore options for its gasbusinesses while focusing on electric generation. DPL said it hascontinued to expand its natural gas-fired generation business withthe addition of 475 MW through two plans called “Phases One” and”Two.” Two more phases, which have yet to be announced, willincrease that capacity by 320 MW. These expansions are occurring inboth Ohio and Indiana, DPL said, and will be immediately accretiveto earnings as these units come online starting in the summer of2000.

Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-AK) last week urged the Clintonadministration not to intervene in the domestic crude oil market toreduce rising prices. The chairman of the Senate Energy and NaturalResources Committee was especially concerned about reports that theadministration was considering tapping into the Strategic PetroleumReserve (SPR) to bring down prices.

If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute. And that’s exactlywhat the natural gas market will be doing this week followingforecasts calling for the coldest weather of the season togradually move south from Canada over the next couple of days. Buttraders weren’t waiting last Friday as they aggressively coveredshorts and initiated fresh longs in bullish anticipation of thefalling mercury. After gapping up at the open, the January spikedhigher Friday to finish at $2.446, a 16.1-cent advance for the day.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFObeyond Friday.

Flat pricing dominated the cash market again Thursday, butregion-specific variations also continued. While numbers saw littlechange in the Gulf Coast, Midcontinent/Midwest and Southwest,Northeast deliveries took a dive and Rockies pipes saw gains ofabout a nickel or so. The Rockies and Northeast price movements,though divergent, were based on the same influences: changingweather. The East Coast is entering a warm-up period; meanwhile,recent record-setting warmth in the Rockies was a thing of the pastas a stormy cool front moved through the region toward the Plainsstates.

SCANA Energy and affiliate Powertel, Inc., one of the largestwireless PCS telecommunications providers in the Southeast,announced plans to jointly market their services at 30 kiosklocations in Kroger grocery stores in Greater Atlanta, Macon,Augusta and Savannah beginning today. Powertel will provide thepersonnel for the kiosks locations, which were built and installedby SCANA. Customers will soon be able to sign up for Powertel andSCANA services, make bill payments and receive information on otherservices while shopping at Kroger.

Seeking to expand its presence in the Pennsylvania-NewJersey-Maryland market, PP&L’s marketing subsidiary, PP&LInc. agreed to a one-year gas services contract with the townshipof Easton, MD, earlier this week.

Under heavy pressure from near record-setting high temperatures,the natural gas market caved in yesterday as traders continued toliquidate long positions. After opening at $2.80 the Decembercontract was hit with a Microsoft-like drop, breaking through keysupport levels at $2.74 and $2.70, to finish off 21.9 cents at$2.665.

With the futures screen lending little to no direction to thecash market, weather took over as the dominant influence Tuesday.Existing and expected chilly temperatures caused gains between 4and 10 cents in the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent regions. Northeastpoints made the biggest moves of the day, with many jumping morethan 15 cents.