Opening

California regulators this week (Dec. 16) are slated to take acritical step in eventually opening the natural gas industry tomore competition when they decide whether to follow staffrecommendations and push for a natural gas consumer protection lawwhen the state legislature reconvenes next month. Staff at theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission are asking the five-memberregulatory body to adopt a proposed consumer protection bill thatwas outlined last August as part of a report to the statelegislature, which has openly expressed concerns about unbundlingnatural gas to the same degree as the state’s electric industrybecause of customer and public safety issues related to thedistribution and use of gas.

The controversial two-year period in which Dynegy Marketing andTrade held a huge chunk of El Paso’s firm capacity to the SouthernCalifornia border is coming to an end, and western gas traders arelooking for a new market regime in the new millennium. Unless thepipeline manages to negotiate a deal for most if not all of thecapacity expiring at the end of 1999, traders are expecting theabundance of transportation space from Southwest basins to theborder to lower regional prices next year.

After a strong opening failed to attract the buying necessary tofill the chart gap up to $2.52, the natural gas futures marketsagged Friday, as traders turned once again to the deleteriouseffects of above-normal temperatures in both short and long rangeforecasts.

With the opening of expanded natural gas storage anddeliverability last week at jointly owned Jackson Prairie in thesouthwest part of Washington state, interstate pipelines likeWilliams’ Northwest and Kern River are trying to develop more andbetter services to gas-fired electric generation plants which areexpected to proliferate across the U.S. landscape in the early 21stCentury.

With the opening of expanded gas storage and deliverability thisweek at jointly-owned Jackson Prairie in southwest Washingtonstate, interstate pipelines like Williams Northwest are trying todevelop better services for electric generation plants, which areexpected to multiply significantly in the coming years.

After a negative opening and a quick check lower, natural gasfutures battled back Tuesday, as traders gleaned support fromstrength in nearby physical market prices and technical buying inout months. But despite yesterday’s positive price direction, theNovember contract never fully recovered from early its earlysluggishness and finished off 0.5 cents at $3.011. Meanwhile,December and January contracts closed up 2.6 cents and 2.1 cents at$3.148 and $3.158 respectively.

Despite bullish over the counter dealings and a constructiveopening, the natural gas futures market shuffled lower Monday asshort-term traders sold off newly acquired long positions. TheNovember contract notched a $3.02 high shortly after the open thenproceeded lower to its $2.86 low for the session. A late rallybolstered prices near the closing bell to $2.92, a 5.5-cent loss onthe day.

Nymex front months continued to lose strength yesterday withNovember opening sharply lower and slipping downhill fast duringlight morning trading. There was significant selling early asNovember dropped into the low $2.70s before 11 a.m. then choppedsideways the rest of the day, before ending at $2.744, less than 2cents off its daily low of $2.725 and down 8 cents for the day.

One year after opening its entire Ohio territory to retail gassupplier competition, Columbia Gas of Ohio said nearly 500,000customers, or about one-third of those eligible, are buying gasfrom marketers rather than the utility. Columbia serves 1.3 millioncustomers in the state.