Stunned

Like a stunned boxer that twice tries but fails to lift himself off the mat, the natural gas futures market was unable to recover Thursday following the release of storage data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) showing a larger-than-expected 64 Bcf injection. After dropping a cool 10 cents in 10 minutes following the report, the August contract looked like it might rebound before lunchtime. However, that rally and a similar one in the early afternoon fizzled, leaving prices to sift downward and close just off their lows. At $2.902, the August contract finished with a 14-cent decline for the session.

Many market experts were stunned last week by the American Gas Association’s (AGA) report of a 3 Bcf net injection into the nation’s storage facilities during the week ending Aug. 10. An injection that small in August is unprecedented and had an immediate impact on prices, pushing near-month futures up 37 cents on Wednesday with a similar increase in cash Thursday morning. However, many marketers said they were attempting to ignore the data as an anomaly or an outright mistake by AGA or the storage companies it surveys.

FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner stunned his courtroom last week when he abruptly ended the affiliate-abuse phase of the hearing exploring charges against El Paso Natural Gas and affiliate El Paso Merchant Energy after attorneys refused to put El Paso Corp. Chairman William Wise and other top corporate executives on the stand to be questioned by California regulators.

FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis L. Wagner stunned his courtroom yesterday when he abruptly adjourned the affiliate-abuse phase of the hearing exploring charges against El Paso Natural Gas and affiliate El Paso Merchant Energy after the company refused to put El Paso Corp. Chairman William Wise and other top corporate executives on the stand to respond to questions from Wagner.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week told El PasoNatural Gas to continue full-steam ahead on its reallocationprocess at the Topock, AZ, delivery point into Southern Californiadespite pleas by Southern California Gas that its ratepayers couldsuffer irreparable harm from the plan.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week basicallytold El Paso Natural Gas to continue full-steam ahead on itsreallocation process at the Topock, AZ, delivery point at theSouthern California border despite pleas by Southern California Gasthat its ratepayers could suffer irreparable harm from the plan.

With the ink barely dry on the contract accord, El Paso Natural Gas stunned everyone last week when it announced that it and Enron North America Corp. were parting ways. El Paso said the companies had reached a “mutual agreement” to annul their $38 million negotiated arrangement under which the marketer had agreed to acquire 1.2 Bcf/d of westbound firm capacity on the pipeline. (See NGI, Jan. 31).