Technical

While FERC’s decision last week to call a technical conferenceon TriState Pipeline “obviously was not advantageous for us,” leadsponsor CMS Gas Transmission and Storage isn’t ready “at thispoint” to throw in the towel on the project, a company spokesmansaid.

FERC has called on staff to convene a technical conference toreview various options to “resolve the jurisdictional and policyissues” posed by the proposed TriState Pipeline project. TheCommission issued an order calling for the conference after itfailed to act last week on TriState’s request for “expeditedrehearing” of a May decision in which it shelved theChicago-to-Dawn Hub project as proposed and suggested other optionsfor the sponsors to pursue.

After touching the lowest level in almost two weeks earlyMonday, the June futures market was bid higher throughout the restof the session as traders took profits from last week’s sell-off.June finished up 5.8 cents for the day at $2.311, just off its$2.32 high.

Without clear fundamental or technical direction, the futuresmarket was left to follow the early lead of cash prices, which wasgenerally softer Friday. Lack of substantial liquidity was also alimiting factor during the abbreviated trading session as manytraders elected to remain on the sidelines. The March contractfinished down 3 cents at $1.807.

FERC announced it will sponsor a technical conference next monthon the issue of Y2K readiness in the energy industry. It will beheld Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. at the Commission’s Washington headquarters.

While technical conference participants hotly debated FERC’snatural gas transportation initiatives last week, there appeared tobe some areas of agreement – starting with the need for more timeto argue.

FERC staff has scheduled a conference for Dec. 8th to addressall policy and technical issues associated with the Commission’sproposal to implement auctioning of pipeline capacity in theshort-term market.

A combination of stronger cash prices met with and conspiredwith constructive technical factors to lift the futures market forthe 4th straight day Tuesday. November managed a 5.9 cent rally tosettle at $2.202, but the big news of the day centered on the outmonths which posted similarly impressive advances, bringing the3-month strip up 6 cents. Estimated volume was a healthy 69, 463 onthe day.

Technical factors exert their influence on the natural gasmarket on a daily basis, confounding some traders while rewardingothers. Sometimes technicals are in agreement with underlyingfundamentals as was the case throughout the month of September,when supply tightness met with chart patterns and trend lines thatwere flashing buy signals. The end result: a rally that lifted theOctober contract 40 cents for the month. But, oftentimes thesefactors are not in concert, and trading thus far in October hasbeen just that. Whereas storm-related supply shut-ins supported themarket in September, October has been relatively free of supplydisruptions. That, coupled with U.S. storage inventories nearlyfull, has created an oversupply situation which has weighed onprices most of the month.