Slows

After a year of 6% gas production growth in 2001, Canadian gas production growth in January and February is beginning to slow down. Canadians may be unable to make significant gains without another Ladyfern-type find, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll.

After a year of 6% gas production growth in 2001, Canadian gas production growth in January and February is beginning to slow down. Canadians may be unable to make significant gains without another Ladyfern-type find, said Lehman Brothers analyst Thomas Driscoll.

Prices continued to drift lower again Thursday, but the declines were getting smaller and traders reported detecting hints of a strong possibility for a rebound today. Most of yesterday’s drops were around a dime or less, and scattered points such as intra-Alberta, Sumas, Texas Eastern-East Texas, the Florida and Algonquin citygates, Kern River and the California border-PG&E were flat to a tad higher.

“There’s a lot of gloom and doom all around,” commented a Midcontinent marketer. While the downhill slope for cash prices got a bit less steep Wednesday, no one was ready to argue with the marketer’s contention. Except for larger declines in the Rockies and at the PG&E citygate, most of the downticks were a dime or less, compared with overall drops in the teens the day before.

The expected roll-out of the Texas pilot deregulation program, originally scheduled for June 1, has been moved to mid-July so that the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), can work out computer glitches. Retail competition begins across the state Jan. 1, 2002.

The expected roll-out of the Texas pilot deregulation program, originally scheduled for June 1, has been moved to mid-July so that the state’s grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), can work out computer glitches. Retail competition begins across the state Jan. 1, 2002.

Prices continued to fall in most markets Tuesday, but at aconsiderably slower pace than the previous day’s plunges. Mostdecreases were around 30 cents or less, while California points andStanfield achieved gains from a little less than a dime to about 35cents as more seasonable weather returned to the West Coast.

Except for continued triple-digit spikes in California, theprice rally that began in trading for the weekend appeared to berunning out of steam quickly Monday. Non-California gains rangedfrom barely above flat to nearly 60 cents at Stanfield; most wereless than 15 cents.

If the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality slows downthe permit approval process for companies eager to begin coal bedmethane projects in the state, the largest producers already thereare expected to have no trouble meeting their drilling schedulesthrough at least the first quarter of 2001. Anticipating thehearings, many had already moved proposed drilling projects for2001 through the regulatory process.