Saying

Saying linepack and operating conditions had improved, Florida Gas Transmission did not extend an Underage Alert Day notice beyond Tuesday.

Tennessee issued a systemwide OFO Balancing Alert that was to take effect until further notice Saturday, saying it was experiencing high system linepack “due to overproduction, reduced demand and limited storage injection capacity.” The OFO requires customers under Rate Schedules LMS-MA and LMS-PA (including SAs) to keep actual daily deliveries into the system less than or equal to scheduled quantities plus 2% (or 500 dekatherms, whichever is greater) and actual daily takes out of the system greater than or equal to scheduled quantities minus 2% (or 500 dekatherms, whichever is greater). Customers will be charged $15 plus the applicable Regional Daily Spot Price for each dekatherm of gas outside of the designated tolerance, Tennessee said. Penalties will not apply to underdeliveries into the system or overtakes out of the system.

The folks over at CMS Energy, Reliant Energy and Williams EnergyTrading apparently are the best around at smiling and saying “thankyou.” They came out on top of a new customer satisfaction rankingby Mastio & Co. that evaluates the largest gas marketingcompanies based on the results of 1,200 interviews with industrialcompanies, LDCs, power producers and other marketers.

The folks over at CMS Energy, Reliant Energy and Williams EnergyTrading apparently are the best around at smiling and saying “thankyou.” They came out on top of a new customer satisfaction rankingby Mastio & Co. that evaluates the largest gas marketingcompanies based on the results of 1,200 interviews with industrialcompanies, LDCs, power producers and other marketers.

Northern Natural Gas did not extend a System Overrun Limitationfor all market areas beyond Friday.

Calling 2000 a watershed year for the natural gas market issomewhat akin to saying 1776 was an important time in U.S. history.With only a couple of exceptions, last year began with all spotprice indexes between $2 and $3. It ended with January 2001 indexesranging from $8.56 (Questar) to $18.81 (Transco Zone 6-NYC).

Calling 2000 a watershed year for the natural gas market issomewhat akin to saying 1776 was an important time in U.S. history.With only a couple of exceptions, last year began with all spotprice indexes between $2 and $3. It ended with January 2001 indexesranging from $8.56 (Questar) to $18.81 (Transco Zone 6-NYC).

Records are made to be broken, or so the saying goes. Whileprices continued to dive Friday from the Rockies/Southwesteastward, the California and Pacific Northwest markets kept revvingit like never before. Malin and the PG&E citygate hit the newall-time high mark of $61.

Now that most of the production data for the third quarter isin, analysts generally are saying they “told you so” because U.S.gas production is barely making desperately needed gains.Production is, however, growing slightly more than expected, andsome observers see huge gains to be made next year.