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(substituting for & correcting previous story in Daily GPI, April 20)

Management consulting firm R. W. Beck Inc. held with its previous projection on natural gas prices, and said Friday that in the second quarter it expects gas prices to average $5.37/MMBtu.

This week may have started Monday with rising prices like the previous one, but it didn’t take long for the two market paths to diverge. Quotes kept ascending through Thursday of last week, but on Tuesday of this week they were already in full retreat in most areas.

Notching a small drop-off from the previous year’s earnings, Oneok Inc. posted full-year 2003 net income of $112.5 million, or $1.22 per share, compared to $166.6 million, or $1.39 per share for 2002. Despite the fall-off in full-year earnings, net income for 4Q2003 jumped to $62.9 million, or 66 cents per diluted share, compared to $37.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share during 4Q2002.

Notching a small drop-off from the previous year’s earnings, Oneok Inc. on Monday posted full-year 2003 net income of $112.5 million, or $1.22 per share, compared to $166.6 million, or $1.39 per share for 2002. Despite the fall-off in full-year earnings, net income for 4Q2003 jumped to $62.9 million, or 66 cents per diluted share, compared to $37.9 million, or 33 cents per diluted share during 4Q2002.

Entering a period of milder weather and spurred by the previous day’s screen loss of nearly 22 cents, prices kept falling across the board Wednesday. However, the decline pace slowed considerably. Wednesday’s drops ranged as high as about 30 cents in the Northeast, but were in single digits at a slight majority of points.

Various sources mentioned the previous day’s spike in petroleum-based futures, continuing cold weather in northern market areas combined with an anticipated winter storm thrust into western reaches of the Southeast, and popular expectations of a 200 Bcf-plus storage withdrawal report as reasons for a moderate rebound in cash prices Tuesday.

FERC last Thursday approved a series of settlement agreements previously hammered out between Commission staff and four power companies, as well as a city in California, resolving allegations that the power-related entities tried to game California’s electricity market in 2000-2001. Under the settlements, the power companies and the California city will pay a total of $141,834.

Much like on the previous Friday, the market was mixed again Monday, but this time the tendency toward softening was more pronounced than before. And a swan dive by the screen, which was just a tad shy of losing 35 cents, pretty much assured that mild weather forecasts would continue to exact a toll on cash numbers Tuesday, sources said.