News

The near two-week futures rally from an apparent winter lowcontinued yesterday during the regular trading session helped by amajor winter storm that swept through the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic andNortheast and about a dime rise in cash prices. The April contractbroke through strong resistance and posted a new high of $1.965before backtracking to a low of $1.885 and then rebounding to closethe day up 1.3 cents at $1.941/MMBtu. A less-than-expected storagewithdrawal of 69 Bcf, however, helped push futures down sharplyduring the overnight Access trading session. As of 6:30 p.m. (EST),April was down 4.1 cents from the close to $1.900.

The Ohio-Pennsylvania Landowners Association (OPLA) has calledon the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to commissiona General Accounting Office (GAO) study of the need for thecontroversial Independence Pipeline project.

After gapping higher at the open yesterday and reaching as highas $1.915/MMBtu during the day, the April contract was able tomanage only a small 0.6-cent gain for the day, telling someobservers the contract has lost its vigor after the rapid 22.5-centclimb last week. April opened at $1.905, up significantly fromFriday’s settle of $1.853, but it lost steam at $1.92 during themorning and fell back to about $1.86. During afternoon trading, thecontract bounced back up to $1.90 before falling back down to fillthe gap and close the day at $1.859.

A battle for a grip on the growing gas market in the Florida Panhandle has flared up, involving a trio of gas pipeline companies, two of which are planning new offshore routes to the state from producing platforms near Mobile Bay, AL.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to go onthe record this Wednesday with thoughts, but not votes, on thecompeting Independence and Millennium pipeline projects which arevying to be the last link in the new path for western Canadian gasdelivered to the U.S. Northeast.

In an unusual step last week, FERC Chairman James Hoeckeroffered some advice to the industry negotiators who have beenmeeting in closed-door sessions to craft an agreement on the majornatural gas initiatives contained in the notice of proposedrulemaking (NOPR) and notice of inquiry (NOI).

Destin Pipeline Co. has filed at FERC to have cost limitationson its “CNG Lateral” waived in light of delays that pushed theproject’s cost to $35.1 million, well above $19.6 million allowedfor in the Commission’s certification of the project last year(Docket No. CP98-238).

The pace of announced mergers and acquisitions (M&ampA) haspicked up steam in the last few weeks because electric utilitiesare realizing that the pool of potential natural gas targets isquickly dwindling, according to a Merrill Lynch &amp Co. report.

A Senate report’s conclusion that the natural gas and oilindustries aren’t likely to be ready for the computer-relatedsystem challenges of the Year 2000 is based on “out-of-date”information that “misses [the] significant progress the industrieshave made” during the past six months, said major industry tradegroups.