Prices

They didn’t make up all the ground lost in Friday’s plunge, but prices did see solid across-the-board rebounds Monday. Sources cited the continuing creep eastward in the northern tier of states of cold weather that had been confined to the West last week as a significant factor, but also mentioned delayed influence from a screen surge Friday and the return of industrial load following a weekend.

In what is becoming a popular investment vehicle for its Canadian operations, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. announced recently that it is pricing an initial sale of 18.4 million trust units at C$10/unit as part of a sale of the Calpine Natural Gas Trust (CNG Trust), which will acquire selected Calpine Canadian oil/gas properties. It is expected to close Wednesday and make its first cash distribution Dec. 15.

In what is becoming a popular investment vehicle for its Canadian operations, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. announced Friday that it is pricing an initial sale of 18.4 million trust units at Cdn$10/unit as part of a sale of the Calpine Natural Gas Trust (CNG Trust), which will acquire selected Calpine Canadian oil/gas properties. It is expected to close Oct. 15, and make its first cash distribution Dec. 15, 2003.

Much higher gas prices and a more intense interest in adding gas production in the Rockies has TransColorado General Manager Julian Huzyk optimistic that a major pipeline expansion out of the region is more likely now than ever before. TransColorado last week revised its expansion plans to accommodate a total of 600,000 Dth/d of new production from the Piceance, Paradox, Uinta and other basins in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. It previously had been planning a 150,000 Dth/d expansion (see NGI, Jan. 27).

Much higher gas prices and more intense interest in adding gas production in the Rockies has TransColorado General Manager Julian Huzyk optimistic that a major pipeline expansion out of the region is more likely now than ever before.

Putting hurricane worries aside for at least the weekend, traders bowed Friday to near-term forecasts of mild to cool weather in most of the U.S. and Canada and the bearish day-later reverberations of a storage injection report that wasn’t much shy of 100 Bcf. Nearly all points recorded double-digit losses; the overall range was from less than a dime to 30 cents.

Oneok Inc. said Wednesday that Westar Energy Inc. and its subsidiary have priced a secondary offering of 9.5 million shares of Oneok common stock at a public offering price of $19 per share, which will result in gross offering proceeds to Westar of approximately $180.5 million. Oneok noted that it will not receive any proceeds from the offering.

After gyrating first lower and then higher on the news that 83 Bcf was injected into underground storage facilities last week, natural gas futures shuffled mostly sideways for much of the session Thursday as buyers remained reluctant to accumulate large long positions. The September contract finished the session at $4.718, up a nickel on the day. At 63,615, estimated volume was relatively weak again Thursday, evidence that the market lacks a consensus on price direction.

A continuation of extreme heat in much of the West provided some rationale for Tuesday’s small upticks in that market area, but sources were generally at a loss to explain similar moderate firmness in the East. Actually the eastern gains tended to be slightly larger, although nearly all points were limited to single-digit increases and a few were flat to barely lower.