Slows

Nevada’s governor last week delayed opening the state’selectricity market until no later than Sept. 1, 2001, choosing toestablish a bipartisan statewide committee to develop a new energypolicy for the state.

Nevada’s governor last week delayed opening the state’selectricity market until no later than Sept. 1, 2001, choosing toestablish a bipartisan statewide committee to develop a new energypolicy for the state.

Nearly all prices continued to climb Tuesday but at a slowerpace than on the day before. Few points advanced more than a dime,San Juan Basin and the Southern California border were flat, andSumas prices into Northwest saw the rare decline of about a nickel.

Record rainfall in parts of central and southern Saskatchewanhas put a damper on construction of the $3 billion, 1.325 Bcf/dAlliance Pipeline, but for the time being sponsors are standing bytheir projected in-service date, sort of.

Record rainfall in parts of central and southern Saskatchewanhas put a damper on construction of the 1.325 Bcf/d AlliancePipeline, but for the time being sponsors are standing by theirprojected in-service date, sort of.

Prices kept falling Wednesday but at a slower rate than the daybefore. Even Northeast citygates were putting the brakes on theirdescent, averaging barely more than a dime down.

Cash prices kept rising Wednesday but at a considerably slowerrate than on Monday and Tuesday. Most of the new increases werearound a nickel or less, and the Northern California points ofMalin and the PG&E citygate actually fell slightly afterPG&E elected not to extend a low-linepack OFO. Sourcesindicated some retreat is likely today, saying the cash market hadmilked just about all the upside possible out of recent forecastsfor colder weather. In addition, the screen’s decline of nearly adime Wednesday should be a negative influence, they said.

With freezing temperatures essentially a no-show throughout theU.S., cash prices continued to decline in most markets Wednesday,with the biggest declines occurring in the supply-engorged Rockies.However, except for western points most of the softness was mild,and some Northeast citygates registered moderate upticks.

This week’s uptrend in cash prices continued Wednesday butclearly showed signs of losing momentum. Several points in variousmarkets leveled off with flat showings, and the gains were small,generally less than 4 cents. PG&E citygates saw the day’s mostnotable decline of more than a nickel due to a high-inventory OFOby the utility that is effective today and carries a stringent 3%tolerance for positive imbalances.