Nears

In the midst of injecting 3.5 Bcf of cushion gas, Western Hub Properties indicated Tuesday that its initial commercial start up for California’s second merchant underground storage project will begin in mid-December with about two-thirds of the project’s 12 Bcf working capacity under contract, according to Western Hub’s California project manager, Jim Fossum.

While energy analysts remain shell-shocked following the brazen terrorist attacks on the nation’s financial distriction and admit they have “no answers” for industry, some predict that the war-provoking events may cause the public, Capitol Hill lawmakers and investors to look more favorably upon North American energy producers, service companies and pipelines.

Northwest reminded shippers that as the end of its storage injection season (Sept. 30) nears, the pipeline’s flexibility “regarding banking or drafting is very restricted.” Both the Jackson Prairie storage facility and the Plymouth LNG facility are almost at full capacity, Northwest said. It noted that although it maintains storage space at Questar’s Clay Basin facility, Questar is allocating injections on a daily basis, “which limits Northwest’s ability to inject there as well.” Shippers were asked to “make every effort to keep nominated volumes in line with scheduled volumes in order to avoid banking or drafting.”

Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) transferred the 2,600-mile KinderMorgan Texas Pipeline (KMP) system and several Rocky Mountainregion gathering and treating assets to Kinder Morgan EnergyPartners last week for $300 million, which nearly wraps up themassive asset divestiture program KMI started last year followingits merger with KN Energy.

As Altrade Power nears its one-year birthday, its operator Altrareleased some of the transaction statistics of the independentonline energy trading exchange. August saw personal bests beingbroken by the online trading platform in power, natural gasliquids, and natural gas, the company said.

As Altrade Power nears its one-year birthday, its operator Altrareleased some of the transaction statistics of the independent onlineenergy trading exchange. August saw personal bests being broken by theonline trading platform in power, natural gas liquids, and naturalgas, the company said (see Daily GPI,Oct. 25, 1999).

Southern California border quotes for swing gas peaked just shyof $7 Monday amid rising prices throughout the general market.Increases at non-border points ranged from about a nickel to 20cents, with most in the vicinity of a dime; however, the PG&Ecitygate went up a little more than 40 cents to around $5.90.

Oneok Inc. closed its $307.7 million acquisition of Dynegy’smidstream assets yesterday, and now is focusing on its other majorMidcontinent deal with Kinder Morgan.

After suffering through a long period of low prices and thinmargins, exploration and production (E&P) companies appear tobe headed toward a period of success, a report published recentlyby Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown said. Strong gas prices, industryconsolidation and probable low storage levels are the main factorscontributing the report’s bullish conclusions.