Stand

Apparently Wednesday’s Iroquois Zone 2 quote of $76 will stand for a while as the spot market’s price record, because Northeast quotes tumbled Thursday about as fast as they had skyrocketed the day before. Conversely, the rest of the market ranged from flat to up nearly half a dollar after having been softer the day before.

Canadian pipelines and their customers stand warned, by the United States National Petroleum Council, to expect wide swings in excess capacity and associated pressure on tolls as the North American natural gas market struggles to stay in balance through 2025.

Triple-digit plunges in the Rockies and San Juan Basin were greatly conspicuous among general flatness elsewhere in Wednesday’s trading. Only rarely did non-Rockies/San Juan points stray more than a few pennies up or down from unchanged as most of the nation was expected to continue seeing a mix of belated winter and springlike weather through at least Tuesday.

Natural gas producers and pipeline developers stand warned to make community relations a priority if they advance, as planned this year, a proposal to connect Arctic supplies with a project traversing the native-dominated Mackenzie Valley.

Natural gas producers and pipeline developers stand warned to make community relations a priority if they advance, as planned this year, a proposal to connect Arctic supplies with a project traversing the native-dominated Mackenzie Valley.

The $6.6 billion 2003 capital budget approved by ConocoPhillips Tuesday may be 25% lower than the prior year stand-alone budgets of its heritage companies, Conoco Inc. and Phillips Petroleum Inc., but the Houston major wants to take a closer look at its vast legacy opportunities worldwide, many of which are expected to help fuel its growing upstream business.

Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI), wobbling as a stand-alone retail and wholesale services company, last week said it had identified a series of four more related natural gas financial swap transactions that should not have been recorded. The transactions decreased RRI net income by $13 million in 2000 and increased net income by the same amount in 2001. After meeting with its independent auditors and the Securities and Exchange Commission, RRI determined that a restatement would not be required, but it will file an additional footnote disclosure as an amendment to its 2001 Form 10-K/A.

North American natural gas markets stand warned that western Canadian supplies either have or soon will reach a turning point where they peak then start to run down, and the nation’s top transporter, TransCanada PipeLines, is starting to craft liquefied natural gas (LNG) import projects.

North American natural gas markets stand warned that western Canadian supplies either have or soon will reach a turning point where they peak then start to run down, and the nation’s top transporter is crafting import projects.