Thursday

The Florida Supreme Court dealt a serious blow to thedevelopment of merchant power in the state in a 6-1 decision issuedThursday, reversing the state Public Service Commission’sauthorization for Duke Energy’s construction of a 514 MW powerplant at New Smyrna Beach.

Texas Eastern plans minor maintenance for a few hours Thursdaymorning at the Grand Chenier (LA) Station. Operators may experiencehigher than normal pressures on the West Louisiana zone’s CameronSystem, but pressures are expected to return to normal by evening.

Florida Gas Transmission lifted Thursday an Overage Alert Daynotice (see Daily GPI, March30). However, a weekend pipe replacement project between Stations12 and 13 in north-central Florida will limit market area deliveriesto 1.15-1.25 Bcf/d, down from the normal 1.4 Bcf/d. Thus the pipelineis reinstating the OAD notice for today through Sunday. The tolerancefor negative daily imbalances will be 6% today and tighten to 4%Saturday and Sunday.

NGPL’s High Island Lateral will be out of service for about 12hours of construction Thursday, causing a shutdown of Station 344(Jefferson County, TX). Shippers using the HI 116 Vasgas/NGPL HI 71point will need to nominate half of their normal volumes for thatgas day.

As traders had expected, prices used Thursday afternoon’s andFriday morning’s futures strength as a springboard to achieveincreases that were mostly between a nickel and a dime Friday.

Feeding off late gains achieved Thursday, natural gas futuresrumbled higher Friday as traders continued to look past theoverwhelmingly bearish short- and medium-term weather outlook tofocus instead on the potential for higher prices this summer. Withthat upward bias, the March contract advanced 5.4 cents to settleat $2.603, just a fraction of a cent below the $2.61 Februarysettle, but nearly a dollar above the $1.666 March 1999 closingprice.

California regulators Thursday released a final environmentalimpact report for the state’s second merchant underground naturalgas storage project in the Sacramento Valley of northernCalifornia. Absent new opposition from surrounding landowners,Texas-based Western Hub Properties hopes to have its $80 millionstorage project operating by the end of this year, following ayear’s delay in the approval process for environmental review.

Coastal Gas Gathering and Processing experienced a fire Thursdayat its Dragon Trail (CO) Plant that caused one injury and limitedreceipts into Northwest, Questar, CIG and Public Service Co. ofColorado. Dragon Trail throughput was reduced temporarily to zeroFriday but was being restored by that afternoon, a spokesman said.Full output was expected to be reached by Friday night or Saturday,he said.

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Robert Pitofsky Thursdayoutlined some factors the FTC considers in determining whether andto what extent restructuring can save an otherwise anticompetitivemerger proposal. In remarks at the Cutting Edge AntitrustConference of Law Seminars International in New York City hestressed the need for transparency on behalf of federal regulatorsas restructuring proposals become more complex.