Reason

In concert with gains in the nearby crude and heating oil pits, natural gas futures proceeded higher for the seventh straight session Friday as locals hunted for sell stops and funds covered shorts. Buying was concentrated in the winter months, which advanced an average of 22.7 cents during the session. By comparison, the 2004 summer strip languished near unchanged, down a half-cent for the day.

Quebec isn’t known for its natural gas production, and there’s a good reason for that: there’s only one field with just one producing well in the whole province, and it’s been out of service since April 2002. However, Junex, which holds 3.5 million acres under exploration permits in the province with proven reserves of more than 728 MMcf/d, said it is about to bring the Galt field near Gaspé back online next month and is planning to increase production over the next few years.

Quebec isn’t known for its natural gas production and there’s a good reason for that: there’s only one field with just one producing well in the whole province and it’s been out of service since April 2002. However, Junex, which holds 3.5 million acres under exploration permits in the province with proven reserves of over 728 MMcf/d, said it is about to bring the Galt field near Gaspé back online next month at a relatively high rate.

The difficulty in determining savings from switching to another supplier can be the primary reason for not participating in customer choice programs. But a new handy calculator on the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) web site (www.pickocc.org) makes the math easy for residential customers. The interactive calculator helps consumers compare rates of natural gas suppliers to their current natural gas company. Consumers enter the current rate of a natural gas supplier in the calculator, their county sales tax and their monthly natural gas usage to receive a side-by-side comparison of what their monthly natural gas bill would be if they chose a supplier versus staying with their gas utility. “Ohio consumers deserve easy to use resources to assist them in making educated utility choices,” said Robert S. Tongren, Consumers’ Counsel. “This new tool will aid consumers in calculating potential savings based on their natural gas usage and suppliers’ offers.” Three of Ohio’s natural gas utilities have offered natural gas choice programs since 1997: Cincinnati Gas & Electric, Columbia Gas of Ohio and Dominion East Ohio. About 38% of those companies’ eligible customers have participated by choosing an alternative gas supplier. Gas choice is being offered this winter for the first time for Dayton area customers of Vectren Energy Delivery of Ohio.

Citing the downgrade of El Paso Energy Corp. as part of the reason for its action, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the senior secured debt of a MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. subsidiary that owns and operates a 537 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle generation plant located in the Midwest.

Citing the downgrade of El Paso Energy Corp. as part of the reason for its action, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the senior secured debt of a MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. subsidiary that owns and operates a 537 MW natural gas-fired combined cycle generation plant located in the Midwest.

U.S. producers are expected to continue to view Canadian exploration and production (E&P) companies as enviable takeover targets in 2002, according to analysts.

U.S. producers are expected to continue to view Canadian exploration and production (E&P) companies as enviable takeover targets in 2002, according to analysts.

The embattled Canada-to-New York Millennium Pipeline project has been assailed for nearly every conceivable reason, or so it was thought. As the nation continues to deal with the shock of the deadly terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., it took a New York state resident only one day after the double assaults to protest the proposed Millennium line on the grounds that it poses an enviable target to terrorists.