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TransCanada promised $70 million in savings to its pipelinecustomers last week as part of an ongoing effort to work outsynergies and structural issues caused by last year’s merger withNova Corp. But while the company is working on its internaloperations, other companies are sizing up TransCanada as apotential acquisition, according to Jim Oosterbaan, vice presidentfor the Alberta-based consulting firm Ziff Energy Group.

The cash market emerged from the July 4 holiday weekend with astrong performance in which prices ranged from flat at some pointsin the Gulf Coast and Midcontinent to nearly 20 cents higher inCalifornia. The West made a remarkable recovery from last Friday’ssteep dives, reclaiming nearly all of the ground it had lost. Aheat wave over the eastern third of the U.S.-especially acute inthe Northeast-kept prices firm in the producing and market areas.

Natural gas futures continued lower in an abbreviatedpre-holiday trading session Friday, adding to losses achievedWednesday and Thursday and stifling the hopes of bulls who werelooking for short-covering buying into the long weekend. The Augustcontract finished down 2.2 cents on the day at $2.287, 13.3 centsless than Wednesday’s high price. Estimated volume was an extremelymodest 28,784.

Reliant Energy’s board of directors elected Eddie Meche to thepost of vice president and chief risk control officer for Reliant.Meche joined Reliant in 1997 and most recently served as vicepresident for risk control for the company’s Wholesale Group.

International operations enabled UtiliCorp United to post higherearnings during the first quarter despite sharply lower resultsfrom Aquila Energy’ midstream activities. UtiliCorp reportedearnings of $51.9 million, up from $43.3 million a year earlier.Diluted earnings per share for the quarter were $.57 in 1999compared to $.53 in 1998.

Late-November price softness showed little sign of abating inpost-weekend activity Monday, and except for residents of theNorthwest and Upper Plains enduring somewhat nasty weather, thereason was apparent to anybody who went outdoors. Temperaturesapproaching the Thanksgiving holiday are unseasonably mild for thegreat majority of the U.S., and the lack of load combined with theearly stages of storage withdrawal season were depressing both cashand futures numbers. Quotes were mostly flat for the SouthernCalifornia border and TCO; otherwise price declines tended to rangefrom about a nickel to more than a dime.

Paul Anderson is leaving the post of president and chiefoperating officer of Duke Energy, a position he assumed when Dukebought PanEnergy, to become managing director and CEO of BrokenHill Pty. Ltd. He will relocate to Australia. Anderson announcedthe move two days after Duke announced it was selling two-thirds ofPanEnergy – the Panhandle Eastern and Trunkline pipelines – to CMSCorp.

Except for a couple of Western regions, cash prices Mondayfailed to realize the strong post-holiday recovery from Thursday’splunging numbers that sources had expected. Weakness in the futuresscreen acted as an obvious drag on Eastern prices, which weremostly flat to less than a nickel higher. And one trader felt thelarger upticks in the Rockies and San Juan Basin and at theCalifornia border were more a case of “them being so weak justprior to the holiday” than any great strength in Western markets.

The bullish sentiment for the aftermarket that several tradershad expressed Tuesday (see Daily GPI, July 1) appeared to bejustified Wednesday as price increases of a dime or more dominatedmost points. The old refrain of “following the screen” was popularagain. But as the screen leads up, so shall it also lead back down,according to some prophecies, and so it was Wednesday. Early pricelevels were retreating late as Henry Hub futures gave up earlygains. Henry Hub cash started at $2.48-49 but fell as low as $2.40late, a marketer said.