Spikes

Except for some upticks in San Juan Basin and at Northeastcitygates (especially strong in both of Transco’s Zone 6 pools),late-December swing prices stayed on a downhill slide Wednesday.Declines ranged from mildly softer to more than $2 lower atStanfield, but most were within the range of 40-70 cents.

Separate class action lawsuits tied to California’s natural gasand electricity price spikes were filed Monday alleging that a”conspiracy” dating back to 1996 between Sempra Energy’s twoutility companies and El Paso Natural Gas has contributed to thestate’s skyrocketing energy prices and short supplies.

Ongoing power price spikes in the California market are directlyrelated to natural gas prices running $60 to $75/MMBtu, accordingto Kellan Fluckiger, COO of the Cal-ISO, who announced another day,Tuesday, of Stage One and Two power alerts.

Even with near record prices for oil and gas, theever-optimistic independent exploration outfits in California’straditionally fossil fuel-rich Kern County are having a hard timenailing down financing to continue exploring.

Even with near record prices for oil and gas, theever-optimistic independent exploration outfits in California’straditionally fossil fuel-rich Kern County are having a hard timenailing down financing to continue exploring.

A Southern California border spike of about 80 cents Friday,with a few quotes peaking in the lower $6.70s, was by far the mostattention-grabbing feature of a weekend market that was mostly flatto moderately higher but included a bit of backsliding at San JuanBasin/Rockies points.

Despite strong demand and soaring crude prices, EIA places mostof the blame for the current high gas price situation on tightsupply. “Although rising crude oil prices have encouraged naturalgas prices to advance, the primary cause of these elevated gasprices has been the delicate supply situation,” EIA said.

The heat wave and attendant electric and gas price spikes ofearly May have lit a fire under federal legislators, who may haveto answer to consumers this summer and constituents this fall as towhy the nation’s partially deregulated power industry isn’tworking.

Price spikes, volatility, tight margins and stiff competitionhave prompted many energy marketers to reconsider their positionsand strategy, and this is causing changes in the energy marketingarena as a whole, according to a new report by Frost &Sullivan.