Skyrocketed

Prices skyrocketed at all points Monday as continuing (and widespread) cold weather combined with a half-dollar-plus leap Friday by February futures to bolster the cash market. Just like last week, Northeast citygates saw instances of increases surpassing a dollar, although Monday’s gains fell far short of the triple-digit gains on the Tuesday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which carried four Northeast averages into $10-plus territory.

Natural gas prices skyrocketed in both the physical and futures markets Monday as it appeared that Tropical Storm Rita would be setting its sights on the heart of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) production area later this week following a voyage between the lower end of Florida and Cuba. Producers and drilling contractors were reported to have begun evacuating offshore operations as early as Sunday (see related story).

Choosing to run with the petroleum complex Wednesday, July natural gas futures skyrocketed in the afternoon, reaching a high of $6.80 before settling at $6.789, up an astounding 41 cents on the session.

Transco Zone 6-New York City again skyrocketed by more than a dollar and further raised the peak price bar to $10 Tuesday, but the overall cash market rally had run out of gas, so to speak. Only Iroquois Zone 2 and Columbia-Appalachia managed to join NYC in higher numbers; the rest of the market ranged from flat to down about 20 cents. Most declines were around a dime or slightly less.

Weekend swing prices skyrocketed as high as $5.50 late Friday morning at Transco’s Zone 6-New York City pool. But as startling as that quote was, it wasn’t representative of the overall market in which price averages ranged from 35 cents higher (Zone 6-NYC) to 20 cents lower (PG&E citygate). Flat to slightly higher numbers predominated, and most of the softness came at western points.

Keyspan Corp. announced yesterday that its consolidated earningsfor the year 2000 before restructuring charges skyrocketed above 1999levels. The company posted earnings of $323.8 million ($2.21 pershare), compared to 1999’s mark of $223.9 million ($1.62 pershare). The $41.1 million one-time restructuring charge came primarilyfrom Keyspan’s acquisition of Northeast distributors EasternEnterprises and EnergyNorth during November. The charge reducedearnings to $282.7 million ($2.10 per share) (see Daily GPI, Nov. 10, 2000).

Spot prices appeared to be aimed at escaping earth’s orbit Mondayas they skyrocketed by huge amounts, led by several western pointsrecording increases in triple digits. A strong screen had someinfluence, but it was frigid weather saturating most of the NorthAmerican continent and prompting a plethora of pipeline OFOs (see Transportation Notes) that played thebiggest role in a market that awed many participants.