Resumed

While the rest of the country resumed the softening trendyesterday with price drops of 40-50 cents, California returned tothe stratosphere with increases from weekend levels approaching $5and averages hovering around $19-$20/MMBtu.

Transco notified shippers Monday that the North Terrebonne GasProcessing Plant in South Louisiana resumed processing committedplant owner and third-party gas production as of Thursday. Theplant had suspended operations Jan. 1, a Transco spokesman said.

Northwest resumed accepting physical receipts Tuesday from the ClayBasin storage facility after having rejected them for Monday’s gasday. In a late Friday afternoon bulletin board posting, the pipelinesaid that due to an “inordinate amount” of liquid hydrocarbons stillbeing received from the Questar Pipeline-operated facility (see DailyGPI, Feb. 14), Northwest’s ability tomeet obigations for deliveries to downstream pipeline interconnects ormarkets was in jeopardy. Although no physical Clay Basin receipts wereallowed Monday, Questar and Pipeline agreed to limit non-physicalnominations to 80,000 Dth/d until further notice “subject toavailability of offsetting physical balancing receipts at anotherlocation” south of the Kemmerer (WY) Station. On Monday Northwestfield operation crews were able to complete removal of the condensateliquids that had built up at the Green River (WY), where afilter/separator previously was being overwhelmed by the liquids. Thatallowed Tuesday’s resumption of physical receipts, Northwest said, butshould liquids again start accumulating at unacceptable levels, itwill shut in Clay Basin receipts on 24 hours’ notice. Unlike what wasreported in the Feb. 14 Daily GPI, this time the notice could beissued on a weekend, Northwest said.

Halliburton announced that Dick Cheney has resumed the role ofchairman and will also continue in his current position as CEO.Joining Halliburton in 1995 as CEO, Cheney served as chairman andCEO from 1996 until the merger between Halliburton and DresserIndustries in September 1998. Cheney will succeed William Bradfordas chairman. Bradford will retire at the end of January after threedecades of dedicated service to Dresser Industries and mostrecently Halliburton.

Natural gas futures resumed trading Tuesday right where theyleft off last week as traders pressured the market higher in twodistinct buying surges. The first one came at 10:00 a.m. (EST),when February opened a penny above last Friday’s $2.35 high onreports of the coldest air of the season for the Northeast U.S. Thesecond wave of buying came near the close, in a local-led attemptto push the spot month above its 40-day moving average at $2.385.In the end that push was only half-successful; February was able topunch through its 40-day average, but was unable to settle aboveit. The contract closed up 6.1 cents at $2.383 amid light volume ofjust 43,581.

Some Gulf Coast quotes were topping the $3 level Thursday ascash prices resumed climbing after Wednesday’s leveling-off period.Increases ranged from about a nickel in California to more than 15cents at New England citygates and on CNG in Appalachia. A risingfutures screen provided moderate support for cash, but thespreading of colder weather was the chief cause of the price gains,sources said. However, numbers were retreating in several marketsin late deals. A Gulf Coast producer was able to get only $2.90 ina very late Henry Hub trade after the point had been trading in thehigh $2.90s for most of the morning.

The cash market resumed its climb Thursday, buoyed by a risingHenry Hub futures contract, a tightening supply situation,spreading cold weather and air conditioning load from Texas throughthe Southeast. A “lean” storage report Wednesday afternoon added tobullish sentiment, a marketer said.

Activity at the New York Mercantile Exchange resumed after thelong holiday weekend Monday, and apparently traders hit the marketwith one primary objective in mind: to sell. The spot Augustcontract opened at what turned out to be its daily high of $2.43,and ended up falling 7.4 cents to settle the day at $2.365. Anestimated 32,810 total contracts changed hands.