Topped

A study of North American natural gas markets topped the wish list of 11 potential study projects proposed by the Energy Department (DOE) for the National Petroleum Council (NPC) at the council’s annual meeting Wednesday in Washington.

Gas producers must be wringing their hands in glee as futuresprices topped $4.50/MMBtu on Friday, but some of their customersclearly are a little less than overjoyed. High gas prices areforcing some fertilizer producers to consider shutting down theirplants and selling their feedstock on the open market just to makeends meet.

Billing system changes topped the list of the most costly backroom operations function for utilities and suppliers preparing forcompetitive energy markets, according to a study by XENERGY Inc.Utilities report spending from $1.22 to $22 per customer, with oneutility reportedly spending up to $82 million, to make billingsystem changes to accommodate retail access.

Cash prices kept rising Wednesday but at a considerably slowerrate than on Monday and Tuesday. Most of the new increases werearound a nickel or less, and the Northern California points ofMalin and the PG&E citygate actually fell slightly afterPG&E elected not to extend a low-linepack OFO. Sourcesindicated some retreat is likely today, saying the cash market hadmilked just about all the upside possible out of recent forecastsfor colder weather. In addition, the screen’s decline of nearly adime Wednesday should be a negative influence, they said.

KN Energy said yesterday its Nebraska customer choice programhas topped all other pilots in the U.S. with more than 68% ofeligible Nebraskans participating. About 56,100 customers out of82,500 eligible elected to receive gas from an alternativesupplier, putting KN’s program well over Columbia Gas of Ohio on apercentage basis – only 35% of Columbia’s customers in its Toledo,OH, pilot are participating – but slightly less than Columbia inthe number of customers choosing alternative suppliers. Columbiacurrently has 57,500 customers signed up.