Rest

The optimists are turning out to be right as Canadian naturalgas exports to the United States continue to climb, laying to restpessimistic productivity forecasts a year ago.

Unocal Canada Resources said last week it plans to conditionallyoffer C$221 million for the 52% of Northrock Resources Ltd. that itdoes not already own. The Unocal subsidiary acquired 19.6 millionshares of Calgary-based Northrock in transactions announced inApril 1999 (see NGI, April 19, 1999).

Unocal Canada Resources plans to conditionally offer C$221million for the 52% of Northrock Resources Ltd. that it does notalready own. The Unocal subsidiary acquired 19.6 million shares ofCalgary-based Northrock in transactions announced in April 1999(see Daily GPI, April 16, 1999).

Even an abbreviated pre-holiday trading session at the New YorkMercantile Exchange gave traders no rest last Friday as the marketclawed its way higher from a “disappointing” open only to reverseright back down at the close. When all the dust had settled and theorders were tabulated, the March contract was off 3.4 cents for theday at $2.633.

The Northeast differentiated itself from the rest of the marketyet again yesterday. Contrary to Friday’s results when manyNortheast points gained more than 20 cents, however, theNortheast’s attention-grabbing price activity yesterday felldecidedly on the bearish side as Transco Zone 6-NY fell $1 andTetco M3’s average dropped from the high $3.20’s to $3.

Its prior ruling basically putting the Kansas ad valorem taxcontroversy to rest was based on two incorrect factual assumptions,the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit conceded last week.But despite the errors, the court said the thrust of its opinionremains the same — Kansas producers owe refunds to customers whopurchased gas in the early 1980s at prices that, because theyincluded the tax, were above the maximum legal limit.

While the rest of the nascent December aftermarket Tuesdayreflected a mix of prices both above and below indexes but mostlyon the slightly higher side, Northeast citygates reacted todeliverability limits and increasingly winter-like weather byshooting up to $3-plus in most cases. The spike was most evident atTransco Zone 6-New York City, which saw a tremendous range of about$1.63 from top to bottom led by a high quote of $4.75.

Much like the rest of the majors, Phillips Petroleum is back ontrack in terms of strong financial results with $221 million in netincome in the third quarter, up from $46 million for the sameperiod last year. But CEO Jim Mulva said the sale of its midstreamGPM business, and possible “joint venturing” of its chemicals,refining and marketing operations are still on. The GPM sale isexpected to take place before the end of the year.

BP Amoco’s recently established Gas & Power division isbuying the remaining shares of ProGas Ltd. it does not already own.The acquisition will bring the volume of Canadian gas marketed byBP Amoco Gas & Power to 3 Bcf/d and increase its total NorthAmerican sales to 7 Bcf/d.