Sellers

In a speech to natural gas buyers, sellers and transporters at the LDC Forum in Boston Thursday, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Curt Hebert, Jr. challenged his audience to use all the “clubs in their bags” to ensure that free market forces — and not price caps — are the future of the gas marketplace.

The controversial issue of whether the California Power Exchange(Cal-PX) has the authority to hold other buyers and sellers in thestate’s bulk power market liable for the ballooning unpaid powerpurchases of its two near-bankrupt utilities will move into afederal courtroom today.

Boosted by higher cash market prices, natural gas futures gappedhigher at the open Monday as traders continued to make up groundlost in the precipitous decline early last week. However, insimilar fashion to last week, January futures ran into heavyoverhead selling, pressuring the market lower for much of thesession. The prompt month finished at $8.527, up 13.1 cents on theday, but off 67.3 cents from its $9.20 opening trade.

Conoco Inc. agreed yesterday to use Planalytics’ WeathernomicsGas Buyer, an Internet-based tool for natural gas buyers andsellers that suggests ways to reduce risk and exploit opportunitiesfrom weather-driven changes in gas prices.