Monday

Northern Natural Gas extended a System Underrun Limitation orderfor all market-area zones through Monday. The SUL was initiatedTuesday to guard against excessive linepack (see Daily GPI, June 30).

The stage was set for expiration day pyrotechnics Monday at theNew York Mercantile Exchange. Bulls were confident they could addto the string of five higher highs and higher lows notched on thedaily charts last week. On the other hand, bears believed theconfluence of mild temperatures and follow-through on the heels ofFridays price erosion would set the tone early yesterday. They wereboth wrong. Except for a late and almost inconsequential bliphigher, the July contract was a model of stability yesterday, wherebuying and selling matched up nearly perfectly. July closed out itstenure as spot month up a meager 0.4 cents to settle at $2.262. TheAugust contract finished up 3.2 at $2.324.

Due to its success in the race for Georgia gas customers,Georgia Natural Gas Services (GNGS) announced Monday it will open anew call center in Cobb County to help answer newly-acquiredcustomers’ questions. The Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) affiliate has wonover one-third of the 839,000 total switches, second only to ScanaCorp.’s 40% market share.

Pioneer Natural Resources, a Dallas-based independent producer,announced an agreement Monday to sell $245 million worth of oil andgas fields to Prize Energy Co., a Tulsa, OK-based producer. Lastmonth, Pioneer had planned to sell most of these same properties toCostilla Energy, but Costilla was unable to close the deal. ThePrize acquisition is expected to close June 29 with an effectivedate of July 1.

Follow-through on the heels of Monday’s Nymex strength gave bulltraders an optimistic outlook early yesterday. However, theireuphoria was short-lived when a combination of fund and localselling pushed the market down near stubborn support at $2.205.June trimmed its losses into the close, finishing 6.6 cents lowerat $2.236.

Adding to Monday’s gains the natural gas futures continuedhigher at Nymex yesterday as technical buying lifted the Junecontract in active trading. And with that 4.8-cent rally to $2.359,June was able to successfully fill in $2.31-33 daily chart gap andnotch its highest daily close in more than a year.

Independent producer Titan Exploration Inc. announced Monday ithas agreed to sell all of its Gulf of Mexico assets to Coastal Oil& Gas for $71.3 million in cash plus overriding royaltyinterests in certain properties. The deal, which is expected toclose May 18th, comes on the heels of the completion of the sale ofits Louisiana onshore properties to Phoenix Oil and Gas Ltd. for$5.4 million in cash.

After posting 7.3 cent rally to kick off the week Monday, thefutures market found itself in a spirited see-saw battle pittingprice-optimistic bulls versus price skeptical bears Tuesday. In theend however, the market sided with the trend as the bulls came awaywith their fifth gain in as many days by nudging the May contract3.2 cents higher to $2.331. The May contract expires today at 3:10EST.

Oneok increased its offer to acquire Southwest Gas by $1.50Monday, winning the Southwest Gas board of directors’ approval anddefeating an unsolicited bid from Austin, TX-based Southern UnionCo. The new monetary total of the merger is $1.8 billion or$30/share of common Southwest Gas stock. Southern Union had acompeting, unsolicited bid for Southwest of $32/share on the table,but Southwest had reservations concerning Southern Union’stimetable for the deal’s completion.