Plunge

There was no surprise when prices continued to fall Friday, but what many didn’t expect was eastern quotes holding up as relatively strongly as they did. Nearly all points in the East fell by about a dime or less, and a few scattered ones eked out small gains. Meanwhile, the West fulfilled predictions of steep drops that were fueled primarily by high-linepack OFOs by both of California’s biggest LDCs.

Led by the sizable decline in natural gas and oil prices, Kerr-McGee Corp. reported drastically lower third quarter earnings when compared to the same period a year ago. Including charges for special items, the company posted net income of $26 million ($0.27 per share) for the quarter, compared with $265 million ($2.57 per share) during the same quarter in 2000.

If Houston-based Enron Corp., the acknowledged largest energy trader in the world, had a wish list of things it might want to add to its bartering bag, it might be to trade in this entire year. So far, the news seems to have gone from bad to worse, with business deals gone sour, the CEO abruptly departing last summer, the first quarterly loss in more than four years, rumors of shady business deals, and as of Friday, a plunging stock price that seems to find no floor.

Monday’s cold weather-induced price rally proved to be short-lived, and few if any traders expect it to be revived anytime soon. Most eastern points fell between a nickel and 15 cents Tuesday, while declines tended to be larger in the Rockies/San Juan and California markets. Due to its frigid New England service area, Algonquin quotes essentially were flat.

Like an old wooden roller coaster that ratchets its way to the top only to plunge back to earth in a matter of seconds, natural gas futures free-fell yesterday, as traders liquidated weak length acquired over the last several weeks. The gut-wrenching session left the prompt May contract 26.8 cents lower at $5.248.

As anticipated after Wednesday’s dollar-plus screen plunge, cashprices also were falling bigtime Thursday. Exceptions to declinesof 50 cents or more were rare. However, some sources detected signsthat the huge erosion of cash numbers that started late last weekmight be near an end.

It was a no-brainer to predict Thursday’s plunging market. Amajority of price losses were between 80 cents and a dollar, aschilly but seasonally mild weather prevailed in most areas, thescreen continued to go south and traders perceived AGA’s Wednesdayafternoon storage withdrawal report of 167 Bcf as a below-parvolume.

After tumbling to a new two-week low Tuesday, natural gasfutures roared back to life Thursday and Friday as traders wereforeced to cover their newly acquired short positions. With thatthe February contract was able to take back a dollar of lastTuesday’s record-breaking $1.411 sell-off, finishing the week at$9.261.

Overall, the weekend market behaved predictably after thescreen’s big plunge Thursday, dropping between 15 and 35 cents atmost points Friday. But it was a much different story in Californiaand the Pacific Northwest, where prices rose sharply in hugelyvolatile trading. The Southern California border was “screaming,”said a trader reporting deals ranging from the $8.10s to more than$12.