Small

Most cash points continued their rise yesterday, but thepredominantly bullish sentiment among traders that was evidentearlier in the week showed signs of cracking. Few gains exceededmore than a nickel, while the scattered declining points fell nomore than a penny or two.

Major producers and utilities registered strong protests toTrunkline Gas Co.’s proposal to spin down a 720-mile portion of its26-inch diameter mainline, saying that while this action may be inthe pipeline’s best interest it’s not “in the public interest.”

Prices achieved broad-based small gains Tuesday largely based onan initially firm screen and lingering cool weather in the West,but were retreating in the late going as futures eventually movedlower.

Sabine Pipe Line Co. last week got the go-ahead from FERC tosell a small segment of its pipeline system in Texas and Louisianaas part of its effort to restructure its business into a limitedliability company.

Tennessee reported Wednesday the discovery of a small leak nearMain Line Valve 46 on the 100 Line #1 about 15 miles southwest ofWest Monroe, LA. Repairs are expected to take two days, duringwhich meters upstream of Station 47 (West Monroe) may berestricted, Tennessee said.

Fresh off a neat, 13-cent gain Monday, the futures marketrumbled higher yesterday as fundamental traders braced for asizable storage withdrawal today and technicians set their sightson resistance levels from late last year.

Modest gains were seen in the natural gas pit yesterday after alocal-led sell-off was stymied by scale-down trade buying. Asidefrom cash prices moving a couple pennies higher, the fundamentalpicture remained overwhelmingly bearish, prompting traders to blametechnical factors for Thursday’s strength. The February contracttraded up 2.8 cents to $2.196 and March bounced 3.6 cents to$2.237. Equally as impressive was the 12-month strip, which gained2.6 cents to $2.391

GasKey, a marketer to more than 20,000 residential and smallcommercial customers in Georgia, won the dubious award of being themost complained-about gas supplier in the state last month, theGeorgia Public Service Commission said in a new online report cardpublished earlier this week. GasKey, which recently sold its customersto Georgia Natural Gas Services (GNGS), compiled 45.14 complaints per10,000 customers last month. Second on the list is the now bankruptPeachtree Natural Gas, which received 26.43 complaints per 10,000customers. Shell Energy Services bought Peachtree’s 170,000 customerslast month. The two largest suppliers in the market, GNGS and Scanareceived relatively few complaints, ranking No. 11 and No. 13respectively out of a total of 17 utilities. For more information onthe ranking see the PSC’s web site.

A big fish gobbled up yet another small fish in the Northeastlast week as Southern Union Co. (SU), the spurned suitor ofSouthwest Gas, announced it agreed to purchase Providence Energy(ProvEnergy) for a total transaction value of $400 million. Thedeal, which SU expects to close in nine to 12 months, representsSU’s third Northeast utility purchase this year. If all these dealsare completed, Southern Union will serve 1.5 million customers inRhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Texas, Missouri andFlorida.