Duke Energy Trading and Marketing formed an alliance withOrlando, FL-based Enviro-Check to sell gas and energy services tothe multi-family housing (MFH) industry. The agreement is a uniqueteaming of a major gas and power marketer with a conservation andsub-metering company.
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Articles from Trading
West Points Drop While East Surprisingly Firm
Last week’s trading wound up wound up with a reversal ofregional price trends. Whereas in the first couple of days of theweek Western points were recording gains while the stagnant Easternmarket was mostly flat to a little lower, the West was falling hardFriday but the East was flat to 2-3 cents higher. The Easternfirmness came as a surprise to some traders who had expected mildweather and the usual slump in weekend load to yield modest pricedeclines.
KCBT to Add 18 Contract Months
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has approved a proposalby the Kansas City Board of trade to increase the number ofconsecutive Western Natural Gas contract months listed on theexchange to 36 from 18. The additional months will be listed fortrade beginning today.
June Futures Break Higher Early, Fall Back Late
After breaking out of its downward trading channel and reachinga high of $2.24, the June Nymex contract fell back considerablyFriday and settled the day up only 0.8 cents to $2.167. Strongtechnical buying and position covering ahead of the weekend seemedto spearhead the rally, but the door to even higher prices slammedshut not long before the closing bell.
Price Upticks Recover Tuesday’s Lost Ground
Despite Tuesday’s overall price losses, the rising trend astrading progressed carried over into Wednesday and resulted inmoderate to strong rebounds. Increases mostly were in the range of5-10 cents and tended to cancel out the Tuesday declines.
Nautilus Terminus Gains Hub Support
The gas industry might very well see another trading point inthe Garden City discharge facility of the Nautilus Pipeline. “We’vegot just about everybody connected that we initially planned to.We’re in negotiations with Columbia, and we’re finishing upnegotiations with Koch and ANR,” Nautilus President Bill Hastingstold NGI. Connections with Koch and ANR are expected this summer.Columbia also should be on line this summer, he said. A total ofseven pipeline interconnects are completed or planned right now.Currently, Louisiana Intrastate Gas, Acadian, Texas Gas, andCypress are connected. Trunkline has expressed interest, andTennessee also is in the vicinity of Garden City. “Sonat is alsovery interested, but the distance is prohibitive at the moment, andwe’re trying to work with that,” Hastings said. Ultimately, theNautilus terminus could see as many as 10 interconnects. Hastingswould not disclose Nautilus’ current throughput. “We havecommitments in the deep-water. We expect to be very close to fullin 2001. He alluded to gas processing capabilities but would notdiscuss plans.
Price Drops of Up to a Nickel Dominate Market
Small decreases of 2-5 cents were the order of the day Tuesdayat most trading points, although a few managed to hang in there atflat levels. Moderating weather played some part, but the screen’sretreat late Monday along with another small drop Tuesday set thesofter mood, sources said.
April Futures Edge Lower But Hold Support
The April Nymex contract returned to its recent habit of tightdaily trading ranges Tuesday by containing its movements between$2.295 and $2.345. That tight range only allowed April to lose 2.1cents for the day to $2.330, despite the fact that nearly 60,000total estimated contracts changed hands.
February, March Prices Up; Nymex Delay Cramps Action
A delayed and abridged trading windup in the March futures contract(see details in futures and news stories) Wednesday put a large crimpin the progress of bidweek activity, sources told Daily GPI. While tosome it was just an annoying wait, others complained of having totrade in the dark. A producer said the cash market had been renderedvery quiet by the phone outages that caused Nymex to shut down theexchange temporarily. “For a while we didn’t even know whether ourorders were filled,” he said. “It’s hard to take a cash position ifyou are unsure where your hedge lies.”