Rare

Unified price movement almost made one of its rare return visits to the cash market in recent weeks Thursday. All points responded to the previous day’s 22.1-cent advance by August futures with gains. Prices rose overall despite a substantial dearth of fundamental cooling load in many areas.

March gas futures inched 5.4 cents lower Friday to $7.476 in a very quiet day of trading on this rare Feb. 2 when the famous Punxsutawney, PA groundhog failed to see his shadow, presaging an early spring. Little was revealed about what’s in store for this week, which is widely expected to be the coldest of the year for the Lower 48.

After its meteoric rise from a July 25 low of $7.185 to a Monday high of $8.870, September natural gas futures decided to put in a rare and relatively quiet day of trading on Tuesday.

In order to sort out historical alignment issues in the rare year — such as 2004 — when there are 53 weekly natural gas storage reports instead of the usual 52 (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday that beginning with the report for the week ending Jan. 7, it has implemented a daily interpolated average approach of calculating the year-ago and five-year average statistics.

In order to sort out historical alignment issues in the rare year — such as 2004 — when there are 53 weekly natural gas storage reports instead of the usual 52 (see NGI, Jan. 10), the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Thursday that beginning with the report for the week ended Jan. 7, it has implemented a daily interpolated average approach of calculating the year-ago and five-year average statistics.

In a case settled months ago, the California Public Utilities Commission in a rare unanimous decision last Thursday approved a $326 million 2003 general rate case for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., whose increased rates have been in effect subject to change once the state regulators acted.

In a case settled months ago, the California Public Utilities Commission in a rare unanimous decision Thursday approved a $326 million 2003 general rate case for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., whose increased rates have been in effect subject to change once the state regulators acted.

In a rare show of unanimity, California’s five energy regulators agreed on two different natural gas requests from Sempra Energy’s two utilities — Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co.

In a rare show of unanimity, the five members of the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) agreed on two different natural gas requests from Sempra Energy’s two utilities — Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E). One action clarifies an inherited supply contract tied to a state bulk power contract, and the other item opens the utilities’ gas distribution pipes to cable/telecom operators.