Starting

The cash market continued to eke out small gains Tuesday inquiet activity that was starting to remind some of last month’sgeneral lack of volatility. New averages ranged from flat to abouta nickel higher, with the varying increases scattered throughoutthe producing and market areas.

It’s been all talk but no action and as a result industryanalysts are starting to back away from rampant rumors of apotential merger between Southern Co. and El Paso Energy.

It’s been all talk but no action and as a result industryanalysts are starting to back away from rampant rumors of apotential merger between Southern Co. and El Paso Energy.

PennzEnergy Co. – recently formed when Pennzoil Products Groupwas spun off to merge with Quaker State – is in the process ofreactivating its onshore U.S. operations and tip-toeing deeper intothe Gulf of Mexico. PennzEnergy operations are focused on threeareas: domestic onshore, domestic offshore, and international.Operations are in the in East and West Texas, on and offshore Gulfof Mexico, and in Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Venezuela.

Between winter weather that finally was starting to moderate forreal and the normal load decline associated with a holiday weekend,most traders were confident that Friday’s cash market would befalling substantially. Imagine their surprise at an overall flatperformance that even included modest upticks at a few Gulf Coastpoints

A former “wild card” in the outlook for Canada’s biggest energymarket is starting to look like an ace for natural gas that willpay off for American as well as Canadian suppliers, according tonew evidence before the National Energy Board. The NEB has beentold a healthy growth market for gas is developing fast as a resultof Ontario Hydro’s shutdowns of nuclear power generators andelectricity deregulation. According to the evidence a C$1.7-billion(US$1.2-billion) chain of gas-fired power projects is rising fromthe ashes of the Crown Corp.’s crumbling monopoly and troublednuclear facilities.

A former “wild card” in the outlook for Canada’s biggest energymarket is starting to look like an ace for natural gas that willpay off for American as well as Canadian suppliers, according tonew evidence before the National Energy Board. The NEB has beentold a healthy growth market for gas is developing fast as a resultof Ontario Hydro’s shutdowns of nuclear power generators andelectricity deregulation. According to the evidence, aC$1.7-billion (US$1.2-billion) chain of gas-fired power projects isrising from the ashes of the Crown Corp.’s crumbling monopoly andtroubled nuclear facilities.

Warm winter weather normally means trouble for the gas industry,but for Northern Border, which is attempting to completeconstruction of a major pipeline expansion/extension project, ithas been a blessing. After a month and a half delay because summerrains set back construction, the pipeline company is expecting tohave its project in service some time between Thursday, Dec. 17,and Sunday, Dec. 20, with the entire 700 MMcf/d capacity beingfully utilized “almost immediately,” said Robert Hill, vicepresident of marketing and business development for the pipeline.

Crews were already starting to leave platforms Thursday in theMobile Bay area, but it was hard to tell from cash priceperformances, which ranged from flat to down about a nickel.Perhaps that was because virtually no shut-ins are occurring yet, aTexas trader suggested.