Remained

Prices continued to fall Wednesday as the swing market remained in a non-surprising bearish mood leading up to the Independence Day weekend. Growing cooling demand in the South, Midwest and parts of the West was insufficient to overcome the price-depressant effects of a second straight day of futures decline, a load drop-off that was already being felt ahead of the holiday, and anticipation of a storage injection report Thursday morning that could again exceed 100 Bcf.

A new study released by the American Gas Association indicates that gas reserve levels remained flat or dropped slightly last year compared to the 183.5 Tcf recorded in 2001. Reserves rose in six out of the last eight years.

A new study released by the American Gas Association indicates that gas reserve levels remained flat or dropped slightly last year compared to the 183.5 Tcf recorded in 2001. Reserves rose in six out of the last eight years.

The Rockies remained the last bastion of rising prices Thursday with gains on either side of 30 cents for CIG and Questar and about a quarter for Kern River and Northwest. Otherwise the cash market found it had already milked the last drop of price strength from a return of cold weather in the East. Even the Southwest basins, California and intra-Alberta joined eastern points in price movement that ranged from flat to down about a quarter in most cases. The Northeast again led the way downward with even bigger losses that ran as high as about 70 cents at the Algonquin citygate.

ANR said the critical outage along its Southwest Mainline just upstream of the New Windsor Compressor Station in Illinois remained in effect Tuesday. Investigation and analysis of Sunday night’s rupture (see Daily GPI, Feb. 4) continue. ANR does not expect the impacted facilities to become operational again until late this week. “Transportation service through this area will be evaluated and scheduled on a daily basis. Availability of secondary and interruptible transportation will depend on Firm Primary nominations,” the pipeline said.

El Paso remained in an Unauthorized Overpull Penalty situation Friday due to low linepack and forecasts of cold weather in its operating area. The pipeline reported being “under withdrawal” at its Washington Ranch storage facility. Shippers were urged to review the performance of suppliers to insure that receipts were sufficient to cover deliveries. El Paso said it lacked the flexibility to offer paybacks or allow overpulls during the UOP period, which was declared Thursday. It added that markets will not be kept whole and limits will be placed on scheduled volumes at underperforming interconnects to insure system integrity.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental news Wednesday, futures traders remained mostly on the sidelines, waiting for fresh storage data to be released Thursday morning. After gapping higher at the opening bell, the December contract could not hold gains yesterday and quickly fell back into the low $3.80s. Strip-buying was seen for the second day in a row, but it did little for the December contract, which closed with a 2.9-cent decline at $3.854.

Indicative of how insulated it has remained from the energy industry’s financial meltdown, Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. utility unit based in Los Angeles was given an A+ rating by Standard & Poor’s Wednesday for a $250 million bond re-funding offering. SoCalGas’s bonds are rated the same as S&P’s rates Sempra’s corporate credit.

Mirant shares rose sharply last Monday and remained in positive weekly territory on Friday after CEO Marce Fuller said the company would beat earnings forecasts and should have a solution to its credit woes in place before the end of the summer. However, the solution is likely to look a lot different than what was expected a few months ago when the idea was first announced, she said.