Minor

Following closely on Thursday’s minor futures uptick, most cashpoints on Friday barely managed double digit gains in a relativelyquiet day of trading. The Northeast and Midwest took the lead onthe plus side, but the West once again stole the show with declinesof more than $8 at the SoCal Border and more than $2 at PG&ECitygate as power demand declined for the holiday weekend.

Just so you’ll know: “The natural gas market is a real successstory…..FERC has gotten an enormous amount of things right. Themarket may not be unblemished, but there are lots who consider thenatural gas market the best market in the world offering genuineprice discovery on a daily basis across dozens of products. It’ssomething everyone should be proud of,” Robert Levin of the NewYork Mercantile Exchange told a FERC conference last week.

FERC reaffirmed most of its initial decisions in Order 637 onrehearing yesterday, making minor adjustments toright-of-first-refusal (ROFR) and the reporting and postingrequirements of the major natural gas rule.

Texas Eastern plans minor maintenance for a few hours Thursdaymorning at the Grand Chenier (LA) Station. Operators may experiencehigher than normal pressures on the West Louisiana zone’s CameronSystem, but pressures are expected to return to normal by evening.

Tennessee reported Tuesday it had identified a minor valve leakon its 200 Line #2 near Main Line Valve 259 (West Granville, MA).Adverse weather is preventing repairs temporarily, Tennessee said,but it expects to make them Thursday. No nominations or schedulingcuts are anticipated before repairs begin, the pipeline said, butit may be required to limit meters downstream of Station 254 toprimary services for Thursday’s gas day.

After managing minor gains Tuesday and Wednesday, February gasfutures were unable to hold ground and slipped into the holidayweekend at $2.329, down 6.5 cents for the day and nearly back wherethey started the week. Both fundamental and technical indicatorsshowed continued downward momentum on Thursday.

With a few minor changes, FERC has approved Natural Gas PipelineCo.’s (NGPL) proposal to establish procedures to reserve certaincategories of existing capacity for future expansions andextensions.

With a few minor changes, FERC last week approved Natural GasPipeline Co.’s (NGPL) proposal to establish procedures to reservecertain categories of existing capacity for future expansions andextensions.

The overall cash market drifted lower Friday, with quotesranging from essentially flat into Northwest for both domestic andCanadian gas to nearly 15 cents lower at the PG&E citygate. Thegeneral softness primarily was a function of the usual weekenddropoff in gas load, sources said.