Unified

Unified price movement returned to the cash market Friday, and the direction was downward in a big way. Spot quotes bowed to relatively moderate late-summer weather trends in most areas (either existing or in the weekend forecast), prior-day futures weakness, the weekend drop of industrial load and new indications that little storage injection capacity remains with nearly two months left to go in the traditional injection season.

Unified price movement almost made one of its rare return visits to the cash market in recent weeks Thursday. All points responded to the previous day’s 22.1-cent advance by August futures with gains. Prices rose overall despite a substantial dearth of fundamental cooling load in many areas.

Unified price movement returned to the cash market Thursday for only the second time in about two months. And like the trading date of June 8 (see Daily GPI, June 11), the direction was down. Dwindling cooling load in northern market areas and negative futures guidance from the previous day resulted in double-digit drops across the board.

Noting that the challenged oil and natural gas industry currently has a “weak reputation,” ChevronTexaco CEO David J. O’Reilly said the key to restoring confidence is through improved communications, performance and behavior.

Noting that the challenged oil and natural gas industry currently has a “weak reputation,” ChevronTexaco CEO David J. O’Reilly said the key to restoring confidence is through improved communications, performance and behavior.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Wednesday moved a step closer to the creation of a unified open access electric power market, to parallel the one for natural gas, voting on the near final version of its standard market design (SMD) proposal to “remedy undue discrimination in the use of the interstate transmission system and give the nation the benefits of a truly competitive bulk power system.”