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The Midwest snowstorm that gave such a lift to the first dailyprices of 1999 was being repeated to a lesser degree over theweekend and Monday, but this time there were no gains of 20 centsor more as a result. Instead, most of the cash market was flat todown as much as a dime Monday. Still-massive storage inventories,along with forecasts of warming weather in the North and a fallingscreen, were cited as reasons for the softness. Several sources described trading action as subdued.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said last week at a press briefing in Washington, D.C.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

With San Juan Basin-Southern California border (bidweek) basisaveraging double what it was last year through November, 36cents/MMBtu compared with 18 cents, and rising, Dynegy’s $70million deal for 1.3 Bcf/d of El Paso Natural Gas’ firm pipelinecapacity is looking better all the time for the company, DynegyPresident Stephen Bergstrom said in an interview with NGI.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

Under pressure at FERC for buying such a large chunk (40%) ofthe firm transportation capacity to California on El Paso NaturalGas, NGC Corp. announced late yesterday it is releasing 593,122MMBtu/d, or about 40% of the capacity it holds on the pipeline fora one-month term. It is the first quantity of transportationcapacity NGC has released since its negotiated contract with ElPaso became effective Jan. 1 and may appear to be a response toprotesters who have accused the marketing firm of withholdingwestbound capacity in order to prop up capacity prices. “It’spressure from the hearings at FERC last month,” said one observer.A spokeswoman had no comment on why the firm was releasing thecapacity. Demand remains strong in California despite the start ofa shoulder month. “Our goal is not to corner the market but ratherto use what we can,” one NGC marketer said cryptically.