Potential

El Paso sent out a request this week for potential shippers onits proposed Yuma Lateral to get their plans in order. The project,which will serve new gas-fired power generation in Sonora and BajaCalifornia, Mexico, includes a broad range of possibilities interms of size and location.

Responding to regulatory and industry warnings of potentialpower outages this summer, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., SanFrancisco, has begun offering its largest customers payments forvoluntarily curtailing at least 20% of their loads during peaksummer days. The large combination utility covering the northernhalf of California is targeting its 450 largest customers and arelatively few small businesses to obtain up to 500 MW of savingsin a given peak hour.

After suffering a 9-cent setback late Wednesday afternoon,natural gas futures held their ground Thursday as traders electedto play it safe ahead of the holiday weekend. The May contractchecked to either side of unchanged, but ultimately finished inpositive territory, up 1.8 cents at $3.073. A narrow 4-cent tradingrange and a modest 54,989 in estimated volume were evidence of thequiet trade Thursday.

Admitting the possibilities for market abuse in its currentsystem, California’s Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) lastweek responded to federal regulators’ criticism of its congestionmanagement approach. The ISO suggested interim changes for the restof this year while it works out a broadly based congestion plan.Both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Cal-ISO agreedthere is “a serious flaw in the existing intra-zonal managementscheme” for the California grid operations.

Admitting the possibilities for market abuse in its currentsystem, California’s Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) thisweek responded to federal regulators’ criticism of its congestionmanagement approach. The ISO suggested interim changes for the restof this year while it works out a broadly based congestion plan toaddress the admitted shortcomings in its zonal pricing approach.Both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Cal-ISO agreedthere is “a serious flaw in the existing intra-zonal managementscheme” for the California grid operations.

Florida Gas Transmission did not extend an Overage Alert Day notice(see Daily GPI, Dec. 6) beyond Friday.

Things are looking up at Mitchell Energy & Development Corp.at a time when the company is up for potential sale. Mitchellreported third quarter net earnings of $29.5 million versus a lossof $3.7 million in the prior-year period. The current quarter’sresults included a $5 million ($3.1 million after-tax) reversal ofprevious litigation provisions. Excluding the reversal, earningsincreased $30 million compared with the prior-year period,primarily due to significantly higher energy prices and loweroperating expenses. These positive factors were partially offset bythe adverse impact of natural gas and natural gas liquidsproduction curtailments in early August associated with a six-dayshutdown of the Bridgeport gas processing plant for maintenance andequipment upgrades.

Things are looking up at Mitchell Energy & Development Corp.at a time when the company is up for potential sale. Mitchellreported third quarter net earnings of $29.5 million versus a lossof $3.7 million in the prior-year period. The current quarter’sresults included a $5 million ($3.1 million after-tax) reversal ofprevious litigation provisions. Excluding the reversal, earningsincreased $30 million compared with the prior-year period,primarily due to significantly higher energy prices and loweroperating expenses. These positive factors were partially offset bythe adverse impact of natural gas and natural gas liquidsproduction curtailments in early August associated with a six-dayshutdown of the Bridgeport gas processing plant for maintenance andequipment upgrades.

Preparing for the potential inability of Peachtree Natural Gasto reliably supply gas, the Georgia Public Service Commission(GPSC) decided to issue an RFP yesterday for any marketer who wouldwant to be an interim pooler and accumulate some or all ofPeachtree’s 177,000 customers. The RFP is scheduled to concludetoday.