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Kern River Gas Transmission is sending its 2003 expansion customers a little something extra in their “Thank You” notes for signing up for nearly 900 MMcf/d of new gas transportation capacity to Nevada and California markets from western Wyoming. The company said it is decreasing demand charges by 11.4% for 15-year expansion shippers and by 8.2% for 10-year expansion shippers. The proposed rate reductions reflect the lower interest rates in the final debt refinancing of the expansion, which went into service on May 1.

Major El Paso Corp. investors Selim K. Zilkha and Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. will have to win the support of three major institutional stockholders in California if they are to succeed in taking control of the board of directors from the financially weakened company at the annual El Paso shareholder meeting this year, a veteran energy analyst said.

The issue of a matching term limit under the right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) process — something that has been a thorn in FERC’s side for many years — is back in front of the Commission again. This time, industrial gas customers have asked the agency to take a “fresh look” at the need for the matching term cap, and chided it for trying to “metaphorically throw up its hands and walk away” from the issue.

The issue of a matching term limit under the right-of-first-refusal (ROFR) process — something that has been a thorn in FERC’s side for many years — is back in front of the Commission again. This time, industrial gas customers have asked the agency to take a “fresh look” at the need for the matching term cap, and chided it for trying to “metaphorically throw up its hands and walk away” from the issue.

Traders not only talked about the weather Wednesday, but also did something about it: namely, sent spot prices skyrocketing by 30-60 cents or more in most cases. The biggest increases came at frigid Northeast and Midwest citygates, topped by gains of nearly 80 cents at Transco’s Zone 6-NYC pool.

The post-holiday market had a little something for everybody’s tastes Monday. Like big upticks? Go west, young man (or woman). Prefer more moderate but still sizeable gains? The Midcontinent was the place to be. How about you ambivalent types that like to mix it up? The Gulf Coast and Midwest citygates were the regions to trade, although losses outweighed the gains. And for the pure bears out there, it didn’t get any more price-negative than in the Northeast.

In what a Midcontinent/Midwest trader called the first “real” spell of something approximating winter that the market has seen so far this season, cash prices made a huge turnaround Monday from the serious weakness they had shown heading into the weekend. Nearly all points rose at least 30 cents, and gains of half a dollar or more were not uncommon. Appalachian pipe CNG and some Northeast citygates peaked at $3 or more, a marketer said. NGI’s Henry Hub average gained 40 cents to $2.14.

Natural gas traders wasted little time doing something Mondaythey have haven’t done in a while — they took profits. Followinga string of four-straight advances, market makers wasted littletime testing Wednesday’s lows in the Sunday night access sessionand then again yesterday morning. The December contract was thehardest hit, shedding 20.9 cents to close at $6.368. Comparatively,the out months fared much better as traders rolled Dec longs intothe summer strip and calendar year 2001, both of which finished inpositive territory on the day.

Californians looking for something to give thanks for this weekmight want to read a new report from the California EnergyCommission, which claims that the state should have enough power tomeet its electricity demand next summer, barring extraordinarilyhot weather. The CEC’s findings relied in part on the addition ofnew generation that is expected to be available next year, most ofwhich is being built by Calpine Corp.