Tight

Pointing out the potential for market power abuses during this summer’s peak demand periods, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has asked FERC to give it a quick go-ahead to penalize for repeated abuses of market power in the Empire State.

Pointing out the potential for market power abuses during this summer’s peak demand periods, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has asked FERC to give it a quick go-ahead to penalize for repeated abuses of market power in the Empire State.

In the near-term, gas prices could easily drop below $4/MMBtu because of the rapid rise in storage levels this spring. But summer prices likely will spike above $6, and the long-term forecast shows prices will average between $4 and $5, said Robert Morris of Salomon Smith Barney at NGI’s GasMart/Power in Tampa last week. However, Morris doesn’t expect recurring winter peaks above $10/MMBtu.

In the near-term, gas prices could easily drop below $4/MMBtu because of the rapid rise in storage levels this spring. But summer prices likely will spike above $6 and the long-term forecast is that prices will average between $4 and $5, said Robert Morris of Salomon Smith Barney yesterday at NGI’s GasMart/Power in Tampa. However, Morris doesn’t expected recurring winter peaks above $10/MMBtu.

Canadians are cheering on the tight “continental” natural gas market in growing numbers, as gains owed to high sales volumes and prices — driven by expanding exports to the United States — spread and multiply. The seller’s market for gas is behind Alberta government projections of a stunning budget surplus in the range of C$10-$12 billion (US$6.8-$8.2 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31 — or about C$4,000 (US$2,750) each for every man, woman and child living in the province. Virtually all the surplus is owed to oil and gas royalties, and the gas share of them is about 70%.

Canadians are cheering on the tight “continental” natural gas market in growing numbers as gains owed to high sales volumes and prices — driven by expanding exports to the United States — spread and multiply. The seller’s market for gas is behind Alberta government projections of a stunning budget surplus in the range of C$10-$12 billion (US$6.8-$8.2 billion) for the fiscal year that ended March 31 — or about C$4,000 (US$2,750) for every man, woman and child living in the province. Virtually all the surplus is owed to oil and gas royalties, and the gas share of them is about 70%.

Depending on your perspective, California either moved towardfuture solutions to its nagging energy crisis or took several stepsbackward yesterday with the launch of its electricity bulk buyingprogram for long-term, fixed-price supplies.

At 2 p.m. (PST) Monday, the Cal-ISO anticipated California wouldavoid rolling blackouts and have only some business interruptionsin northern California to get around the transmission bottleneckfor moving supplies south to north. The prognosis for Tuesday ispretty much as it was yesterday, said Cal-ISO’s COO KellanFluckiger, noting that they do not anticipate any unplannedoutages, which is always the wildcard in transmission gridmanagement in the midst of shortages of the magnitude thatCalifornia has faced for the past two months.

The National Energy Board has put out a new signal that naturalgas supplies will remain tight by cutting in half its growthprojections for western Canadian production capacity after a reviewof recent performance.