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Petal Gas Storage, a subsidiary of Crystal Oil Co. ofShreveport, LA, is holding an open season for 3.2 Bcf of storagecapacity it plans to add at its high deliverability salt cavernstorage facility near Hattiesburg, MS. The open season began lastweek and continues through Oct. 30.

Natural gas is second only to the newly established electricitymarket in terms of volatility, and Tuesday it did little to dispelthat notion as the market dipped momentarily, only to spikedramatically higher in the last 90 minutes of trading, leaving eventhe most weathered of bulls surprised by the advance. Octobersettled at $2.132, a 17.8-cent gain for the day and nearly ahalf-dollar above the $1.63 low established less than two weeksago. Estimated volume confirmed the active trading with over120,000 contracts changing hands.

For the second Wednesday in a row, ebbing concerns of tropicalstorms and a “buy the rumor, sell the event” mentality has put themarket under selling pressure. In the wake of Hurricane Earl lastweek the October contract sank 13.4 cents. This Wednesday, themarket was already in the process of giving back some of Tuesday’sgains even before Tropical Depression number 6 became TropicalStorm Frances. That left the October contract down 4.1 cents tosettle at $1.833 yesterday.

For the second day in a row Tuesday, natural gas futuresreceived a strong boost in prices from short-covering activity dueto tropical storm concerns in the Gulf of Mexico. Earl became thefifth named storm in the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season yesterdaywith sustained winds of 60 miles per hour. As of 5:00 P.M. EST Tuesday, Earl was located 240 miles South Southwest of New Orleansand moving toward the Northeast at 12 mph. The October contractopened strong and wasted little time in trending higher before anafternoon sell-off left the market with a modest 3.4 cent gainbefore the closing bell. Estimated volume was a robust 82,172.

For the second week in a row, the futures market was unable tobuild on advances posted early in the week, and after the Septembercontract flirted with, but did not break through resistanceTuesday, again came under significant selling pressure that leftthe prompt month down 8.3 cents to settle at $1.812.

Pool marketer Pan-Alberta Gas and a consortium of sevenproducing companies have reached agreement on the terms under whichthe marketing company will be offered for sale to the more than 435Canadian producers in the pool. The announcement of the agreementconfirmed earlier reports that a Canadian coalition was expected towin out over bids from major U.S. marketers.

Petal Gas Storage Co. (Petal), a subsidiary of Louisiana-basedCrystal Oil Co., plans to expand its high-deliverability saltcavern storage facility near Hattiesburg, MS. The proposedexpansion would include leaching an additional salt cavern with astorage capacity of 5 Bcf of which 3 Bcf would be working gas. Thenew cavern, combined with the existing 5.2 Bcf cavern (3.2 Bcfworking gas) would have a withdrawal capacity of 600 MMcf/d.

MCN Energy Group announced last week it plans to exit theexploration business, and expects to take a second quarter chargeon earnings of $225 million because of low oil and gas prices andthe under-performance of certain exploration properties in theMidcontinent and Gulf Coast regions.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will considerthe confirmation of Commissioner William Massey to a second term atFERC at a hearing this Thursday. There, he is expected to get awarm reception.