Reasonable

Natural gas use has to be part of any climate-friendly policy, but the industry so far has done a poor job of convincing a skeptical public that it can find, develop and deliver gas at a reasonable price without harming the environment, Questar Corp. CEO Keith O. Rattie said last week.

Natural gas use has to be part of any climate-friendly policy, but the industry so far has done a poor job of convincing a skeptical public that it can find, develop and deliver gas at a reasonable price without harming the environment, Questar Corp. CEO Keith O. Rattie said Tuesday.

Energy analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. cut their natural gas price forecast through the rest of the year on the “reasonable chance” that U.S. gas prices could fall to $5/Mcf or lower over the next two months because of bloated storage levels.

Energy analysts at Raymond James & Associates Inc. on Monday cut their natural gas price forecast through the rest of the year on the “reasonable chance” that U.S. gas prices could fall to $5/Mcf or lower over the next two months because of bloated storage levels.

It hadn’t reached the southern tier of states or Mid-Atlantic quite yet, but wintry conditions or a reasonable facsimile dominated the weather picture Wednesday and forecasts for the next few days in the rest of the U.S. and Canada. The cash market responded with major gains that were as small as 15-30 cents in most of the West but hit 35-70 cents or so throughout the East.

Enron Corp. and Dynegy Inc. announced last Thursday that they settled a $10 billion lawsuit Enron filed against Dynegy for backing out of a merger agreement and claiming Northern Natural Co.’s pipeline system in the process. Enron filed the lawsuit Dec. 2, 2001 in conjunction with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The settlement agreement has been approved by the boards of both companies.

There is “great upside” for finding new natural gas supplies offshore of Canada’s East Coast — and at a reasonable cost, the National Energy Board has been assured. An assessment commissioned by Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline found that even the early, high-risk phase of operating offshore of Nova Scotia has shown that the cost of tapping the region is well under current gas prices.

This week’s price rally, for which virtually no one could discern any reasonable justification, was over Wednesday everywhere except in California. Most points retreated anywhere from about a dime to a quarter, with greater losses in the Rockies but only small ones in the cooling Pacific Northwest.

Concluding that the action was both “reasonable and in thepublic interest,” the Michigan Public Service Commission last weekapproved a request by Michigan Gas Utilities for a special gastransportation contract with Rock-Tenn Paperboard Products, one ofthe largest accounts on MGU’s system.