Markets

The natural gas and power wholesale market braced for the first day of December deliveries, uncertain of how much of their gas would flow and how much would be affected by the collapse of Enron and its two-year old EnronOnline, which had been the dominant electronic trading system. EnronOnline was back up and running in an extremely limited fashion Thursday, after going dark Wednesday.

In tandem with heavy losses in the nearby crude oil and related products markets, natural gas futures shifted lower Wednesday as traders weighed the impact that fuel switching could have on prices this winter. The latest storage report from the American Gas Association (a 7 Bcf injection) rocked prices first lower and then higher, before the December contract finished the session back in the middle of the its daily trading range, down 4.4% at $2.676. December crude oil futures finished with an 8.6% loss at $19.80, its lowest close on a spot month basis since July 1999.

Energy stocks of all persuasions generally followed the stock markets down throughout last week, the first week of trading after the cataclysmic events of Sept. 11.

Energy stocks of all persuasions generally followed the stock markets down throughout last week, the first week of trading after the cataclysmic events of Sept. 11.

El Paso Corp. said that it has received several inquires regarding the expandability of the Willcox Lateral to serve new markets off the east leg of the lateral. Of the 130,000 Mcf/d of capacity on the Willcox Lateral, 92,166 Mcf/d has been subscribed, leaving 37,834 Mcf/d of un-subscribed capacity available. The lateral runs 60 miles from the El Paso mainline in Cochise County, AZ, to border crossing facilities and is aimed at serving several existing and proposed gas-fired power plants in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora.

After all of the ups and downs in the U.S.’s natural gas markets over the past year, industry experts at the 13th Annual LDC Forum in Chicago last week said they still foresee a 30 Tcf market in the future, but they differ on the expected timeframe. The speakers agreed that the nation’s current infrastructure would need to be beefed up to shoulder the load.

El Paso Corp. said that it has received several inquires regarding the expandability of the Willcox Lateral to serve new markets off the east leg of the lateral. Of the 130,000 Mcf/d of capacity on the Willcox Lateral, 92,166 Mcf/d has been subscribed, leaving 37,834 Mcf/d of un-subscribed capacity available. The lateral runs 60 miles from the El Paso mainline in Cochise County, AZ, to border crossing facilities and is aimed at serving several existing and proposed gas-fired power plants in Mexico’s northern state of Sonora.

After all of the ups and downs in the U.S.’s natural gas markets over the past year, industry experts at the 13th Annual LDC Forum in Chicago Monday said they still foresee a 30 Tcf market in the future, but they differ on the expected timeframe. The speakers agreed that the nation’s current infrastructure would need to be beefed up to shoulder the load.

The cash market’s slide continued unabated in post-weekend trading, with some points plumbing depths they had not seen in nearly a year and a half. Declines tended to be smallest at Rockies/San Juan and California points because temperatures were getting hotter in the region again, especially in the desert Southwest where highs topped 100 degrees.