October

Responding to an inter-office email in October 2000, J. Robert (Bo) Collins the current head of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex), then employed by El Paso Corp., advised El Paso traders to report only verifiable price information to index developers rather than El Paso’s own “book bias,” according to documents filed in a Houston court case.

After battling through a third quarter that brought a cooler than normal close to summer and numerous asset impairments, many electric utilities posted lower than expected earnings, while few managed to outdo their results from last year.

FERC is proposing to survey up to 300 natural gas and power traders twice — this October and next March — to determine if they are following guidelines outlined in the Commission’s July policy statement on reporting price information on energy trades to industry publications. The Commission said the survey would determine whether “further steps” were required to ensure the accuracy, reliability and transparency of price indices (PL03-3).

Gas futures market observers were startled Wednesday when the October contract bolted 23.8 cents higher to $4.968 ahead of what many experts forecasted would be a large gas storage injection number in Thursday’s weekly EIA storage report.

FERC is proposing to survey up to 300 natural gas and power traders twice — this October and next March — to determine if they have adopted voluntary guidelines for reporting more detailed information on energy trades to industry publications. The Commission said the survey would determine whether “further steps” were required to ensure the accuracy, reliability and transparency of price indices.

With the current difference between the injection season (May-October) futures strip and the futures strip for next winter (December-March) at only about 11 cents, something clearly has to give, Energy and Environmental Analysis Inc. (EEA) said in its Monthly Gas Update. Injection season-withdrawal season spreads are only about 3 cents currently, not even close to the amount needed to cover the cost of interruptible storage.

Oneok Inc. has named its new Texas gas distribution business Texas Gas Service Co. Oneok acquired the assets in October and expects to close the deal on Jan. 1. Oneok CEO David Kyle said Roger N. Mitchell will become president of the new subsidiary once the acquisition is completed. Mitchell currently is vice president for the eastern region of Oneok’s Oklahoma gas distribution business, Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. “The Texas company has provided gas service to its communities for 75 years, and the same employees who provided service prior to the changeover will remain in the communities providing service as we move forward together,” said Mitchell. Oneok is purchasing the Texas assets from Southern Union Gas. The new Texas Gas Service Co. serves 535,000 customers in cities throughout Texas. With its move into Texas gas distribution service, Oneok will serve a total of 1.96 million customers. National Fuel Gas Co.

The start of the November aftermarket saw a decidedly mixed bag of price movement Thursday. Compared with last-of-October numbers, Nov. 1 pricing ranged from about half a dollar lower (San Juan Basin) to a little more than a dime higher (SoCal border), with many gradations between those extremes. Overall, the negative changes outweighed the positive ones.

El Paso Corp. will be headed to FERC next month with an application for the first U.S. LNG “land bridge” regasification facility located offshore Louisiana. The company, which believes there are limited sites for land-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminals in North America, also hopes to be filing applications for similar facilities located offshore New York City, New England, the Mid Atlantic region and Atlantic Canada.