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In response to customer requests, Transco has enhanced the LEADreports available in TRANSIT to show best available allocated databased upon a one-day lag for all shippers rather than a two-day lagas has been shown in the past.

While it remains to be seen whether winter will show up thisyear, gas customer choice programs are very much with the industryright now. Programs in Maryland, Michigan and Washington, DC, areunder way. On the electric side of customer choice, two pilots havejust been kicked off in Texas.

Although indexes won’t be set until Friday, the bidweek numbersbeing reported to GPI suggest that October prices will reflectmonth-to-month declines of about 30 cents, give or take a fewpennies. A Southwest-oriented marketer said October looked a bitsofter on Wednesday, but a Calgary trader said intra-Alberta priceshad been rising into the low to mid C$3.20s since Monday.

Don’t put your duck tape and plywood away just yet. Althoughthere’s been a lull so far in the hurricane season, the NationalOceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and renowned ColoradoState University forecaster Dr. William M. Gray both still arepredicting a whopper season this year in the North Atlantic andCaribbean Sea during the peak period from mid-August throughmid-October.

The cash market continued Tuesday to show the same signs ofaftermarket strength-and even more in some cases-that it did lastFriday in swing deals done for June 1 only. Many of the Gulf Coastpipes were trading about a dime above indexes, and most otherpoints were at least a nickel above indexes. However, some tradersdidn’t expect the higher prices to last, noting late softness insome markets such as Chicago.

Natural gas futures continued lower yesterday and were able tobreak through a key support level. The June contract finished 4.5cents lower at $2.191 after mapping out a $2.17 low for the day.

The demonstrative trend among the top energy marketers appearsto be that the big movers continue getting much bigger while thesmaller marketers are struggling to maintain previous sales volumesand profitability, according to NGI’s marketing survey. The surveyalso indicates volume growth has very little correlation withfinancial performance.

Producers put up healthy exploration budgets to show natural gasdevelopment has only begun on Canada’s East Coast with the SableOffshore Energy Project and Maritimes &amp Northeast Pipeline. Ahighly successful auction of drilling prospects offshore of NovaScotia also confirmed faith in the region that the merger of ExxonCorp. and Mobil Corp. will not cause a contraction of the buddingeastern Canadian gas industry.

Judging from preliminary gas marketer ranking results for thefirst quarter, the big continue to get even bigger and the smallergas marketers are increasing their volumes as well. So far in NGI’smarketer survey, 13 of the top-20 increased their gas sales volumesby more than 1 Bcf/d from the same period in 1998. Only four of thetop-20 did less business in 1Q99 than 1Q98.