Northwest Pipeline said it was able to keep all but a smallpercentage of markets whole after its 26-inch mainline explodedabout 8:20 p.m. PST Friday in the Columbia River Gorge area nearStevenson, WA, about 32 miles east of Portland (see Daily GPI,March 1). The rupture caused a fireball, but no injuries werereported and pipeline workers had the situation controlled withinan hour, a spokeswoman said.
Markets
Articles from Markets
Prices Sliding in Both February, March Markets
Maybe it was the urge to converge that had quotes droppingWednesday for both late-February and March bidweek deals. Theincremental softness remained on the mild side as a few pointsmanaged flat showings and most of the others were down by about anickel or less. Once again the bigger declines of 15 cents or morecame at Northeast citygates as they continued to retreat fromMonday’s cold weather-related price spikes.
CA Independents Holding for Deregulation
Despite bullish prospects two years ago with the advent ofderegulated energy markets, California independent gas producers atthe start of 1999 are still struggling against depressed prices,slow developing electric and gas restructurings and a hard core ofthree major investor-owned utilities that have proven to beformidable competitors. One independent producer, Tri-Valley Corp.,in Bakersfield still expects to ride out continuing years of redink until real gas/electric competition and increased oil/gasprices eventually make current projects profitable in the long run.
Coral Markets Farmers’ Excess Power
Coral Energy and Western Farmers Electric Cooperative (WFEC)formed an alliance to co-market power generated by WFEC throughoutthe Southwest Power Pool and adjoining areas. The alliance willmarket all power generated by WFEC in excess of that consumed byits cooperative member companies.
War Fears Boost Oil, And Gas Goes Along for the Ride
Bombing Iraq seemed as reasonable an explanation as any for whymost cash markets were rising in the neighborhood of a dimeWednesday. Weather was getting a little colder but still relativelymild for this time of year, so it’s not like there’s any big surgein gas demand, a marketer said. The AGA storage report of 49 Bcf inwithdrawals last week, which came too late to affect Wednesday’strading, was approximately in the middle of most expectations andthus neither bearish nor bullish.
CA Utilities Stumble Over Affiliate Rules
California is learning the hard way that yet another earlyoffshoot of more competitive energy markets is the arcane world oftrying to police the activities between state-regulated utilitiesand their unregulated affiliates. Nearing the end of its first yearof dealing with this issue, California is experiencing, at best, anuneasy peace between state regulators and the state’s three majorinvestor-owned utility holding companies.
Michigan, Alberta Markets Resist Overall Downturn
Michigan citygates and intra-Alberta numbers stuck out like sorethumbs Wednesday in an incremental cash market where all otherpoints were dropping between a nickel and 20 cents. A furtherdecline in the November futures contract combined with continuingmild weather and the perception that Hurricane Mitch is only a veryremote threat to offshore production to cause the cash softness,sources said.
Prices Plummet; San Juan Down by A Quarter
Just as Wednesday was an unusual day in having East and Westmarkets rising in tandem, the two regions joined again Friday inmoving in the same direction-only this time the direction was down,way down. Decreases of less than a dime were few, and San JuanBasin plumbed depths not seen in a long time by falling a quarterto the $1.50 area. The Permian Basin and Waha plunged by 20 centsor more.
Pacific Northwest Primed For New Storage
The Pacific Northwest, historically a great corridor forshipping western Canadian natural gas to California’s burgeoningmarkets, is getting increasing attention for expansion ordevelopment of natural gas storage to fuel its own growth, whichhas averaged 5% annually in the 1990s. The region’s only twounderground storage facilities are in the midst of expansions, andenergy players within and outside the region are searching for newstorage prospects-under-and above-ground.
Bidweek Mostly Softer; Aftermarket Looks Firmer
Prices continued to weaken at nearly all points Tuesday in boththe incremental and October bidweek markets. Offshore supplies wereslow in returning from hurricane-related outages, but tradersseemed to discount that factor and to depend on abundant gaselsewhere to take up the slack. They also observed that weather andstorage fundamentals remain weak.