Probably

High natural gas prices in the United States have energized spot trading in LNG shipments, with over half the cargoes received in the U.S. recently coming from spot sales, BP’s regional manager for the Americas and the Atlantic Basin said last week.

As Californians continue to wrestle with their own staggering electricity and natural gas bills, they are probably unaware that they are also contributing millions of dollars to help people in other states pay their energy bills through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), according to analysts with Reston, VA-based Energy Market & Policy Analysis Inc.(EMPA).

With a meeting with President George W. Bush set for probably Tuesday of next week, Gov. Gray Davis Thursday seemed to be building renewed momentum in his efforts to untangle California’s electricity mess, which becomes more critical as each calendar day pushes closer to summer. He announced a summer power supply deal, a new effort by the state to give more advance notice of rolling blackouts and new initiatives to enter long-term contracts with the state by the largest of the state’s 30 municipal utilities that serve about 25% of the power consumers.

Weekend prices were soft as expected, but probably fell less than many traders were anticipating. Except for sizeable losses of 20-30 cents or more in the Rockies/San Juan and at PG&E-related points, nearly all of Friday’s declines were 15 cents or less, and a majority of those were around a nickel.

El Paso Natural Gas and El Paso Merchant Energy probably exercised market power in the Southern California gas market and drove up gas prices over the past year when pipeline capacity constraints existed, FERC staff concluded last week in testimony before Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr.

El Paso Natural Gas and El Paso Merchant Energy probably exercised market power in the Southern California gas market and drove up gas prices over the past year when pipeline capacity constraints existed, FERC staff concluded last week in testimony before Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner Jr.

In what was probably the most bullish 5-cent decline in recent memory, natural gas futures shuffled lower Thursday in a lackluster trading session. At the closing bell, May was 4.7 cents weaker at $5.101.

In what was probably its most comprehensive decision onCalifornia since its famed Dec. 15 order, FERC last week announceda series of actions designed to boost energy supply, reduce demandand alleviate the delivery bottlenecks that continue to bedevil thewholesale electricity and natural gas markets in the state andoverall western region.

Gas supplies probably will remain tight, NGSA President SkipHorvath told the Consumer Federation of America’s Consumer Assembly2001 in Washington, D.C. yesterday. “Although producers aredrilling all out and production numbers are beginning to reflectour work, forecasters are predicting continued higher prices.”Horvath spoke on a panel titled “Rising Energy Prices Clobber thePoor: What Should be Done?”