Twice

The Sable Offshore Energy Project had to shut down productiontwice since starting operations Jan. 1. The first incident occurredon Friday Jan. 7 only a week after gas began to flow when a subsealine started experiencing hydrate problems (essentially ice slugblockage). Then early last week the Sable processing plant onshorehad to be evacuated because of a gas leak warning. As of lastFriday there was no prognosis on when production would berestarted.

It is often said markets can fall twice as fast as they rise,and that has never been more evident than it was in the natural gasfutures market over the past two weeks. After all, what took bullsfive and a half days to produce, took the bears just two and a halfto knock down. With a 7.8-cent decline to settle at $2.444, theJanuary contract was 26 cents below Monday’s highs and 0.2 centsbelow its Dec. 10 settle.

Although FERC staff shot down the Atlantic Alliance projecttwice as an alternative to both Independence and Millennium, it didnot deter project planners from moving forward with an open season.

After extending its unsolicited merger offer for ConsolidatedNatural Gas twice, Columbia Energy finally accepted defeat lastweek, ending a three-month battle with Dominion Resources for CNG’shand. Columbia officially withdrew its $6.7 billion offer lastTuesday following a sweetened merger bid by Virginia Power parentDominion set at $6.4 billion and the CNG board’s unanimous approvalof a revised agreement with Dominion.

After a convincing 7-cent gain to kick off the week, the futuresmarket forged higher yesterday morning amid continuedshort-covering mixed with some fresh buying activity. The Aprilcontract was bumping up against the March 12 high of $1.825 inmid-day trading, but in the afternoon the buying dried up, leavingonly sellers to determine the market direction. The resulting priceslide-7 cents in 45 minutes-send the prompt month spiraling lowerto finish at $1.754.

Traders with a penchant for market volatility and large priceswings may want to think twice about scheduling that three-dayweekend. Mondays, as of late, have been a roller coaster ride fornatural gas futures, with either double- digit increases (Oct. 26and Nov. 2) or declines (Nov. 9) welcoming traders back from theweekend. And the market held true to form yesterday, when forecastscalling for normal and above-normal temperatures managed toinspire fund, local and commercial sellers to push the Decembercontract to its two-week low. But in contrast to the declines lastMonday which came in a selling frenzy during the final twentyminutes of trading, yesterday’s price erosion was an all day affairthat left December down 15.4 cents to $2.305.