Unlike

Unlike San Diego consumers for whom skyrocketing utility billscame as a hugely unpleasant surprise, natural gas customers inIndiana have been warned in advance to expect to expect much higherbills this winter. The message to Indiana consumers this week wassimilar to those being broadcast all across the country bygovernment and utility officials anxious to moderate the intensepublic reaction manifest in California.

Unlike the East-West price movement division that markedFriday’s and Monday’s trading, the cash market returned Tuesday toa unified trend that resembled last Thursday’s: down considerably.

Natural gas futures gapped lower on the open for the second dayin a row Tuesday, but unlike Monday’s session that saw pricescontinue lower, prices rebounded throughout the day yesterday tofinish in positive territory. After putting in a $3.92 low justminutes after the opening bell, the August contract was boosted bya round of short-covering which deposited the prompt month 4.2cents higher to close at $4.044.

Unlike those given to Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) and National FuelGas Distribution, the exemption to the shipper-must-have-titlepolicy awarded to Baltimore Gas and Electric (BG&E) was”unnecessary” and represented an “unacknowledged policy shift” byFERC, said Exxon Corp. It warned the Commission’s decision inBG&E could open up the floodgates to similar requests from themultitude of LDCs that are looking to unbundle their systems.

Lacking strong leadership for the fourth day in a row thenatural gas futures market continued to limp lazily sidewaysFriday. But unlike the modest gains that were posted Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday, prices drifted lower to close out the week,possibly setting the market up for more losses today. The Julycontract finished 3.7-cents lower at $2.258.

Unlike a week earlier, the slump in gas demand that almostalways accompanies a weekend had its usual negative effect on cashprices Friday. Declines ranged from only 3-4 cents at Midwest andNortheast citygates to as much as a dime or so at Southwest andRockies points, where most of the maintenance outages at processingplants and compressor stations had ended by Friday. Most otherpoints registered drops of about a nickel.

In case anyone hadn’t noticed, profoundly depressed commodityprices have the world oil industry facing serious uncertainty overits future, according to the 1999 edition of World Oil Trends, ajoint report by Arthur Andersen and Cambridge Energy ResearchAssociates (CERA).

Unlike much of last month, when Western markets persistentlydisplayed weakness while their Eastern counterparts were rising, itis the West flexing a bit of price muscle this week. Rockies pipeswere back up into the $1.30s Tuesday after several had made a briefsojourn into sub-$1.30 territory Friday and Monday. The reason forthe rebound mystified one trader. “It’s not that cold in theregion, so go figure,” he said, adding maybe it was just a resultof the normal “tug of war” between gas buyers and sellers.

Central Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 169 wasn’t a record, unlikethe last few lease sales, but heavy bidding seems to indicate lowcrude oil prices have not affected the industry’s aggressivedrilling plans. The U.S. Department of the Interior’s MineralsManagement Service (MMS) reported receiving 1,188 bids on 794tracts offered Wednesday. A total of 87 companies participated inthe sale. All bids totaled nearly $1.35 billion, and high bidstotaled more than $810.4 million. Of 4,180 tracts offered, 794received bids with an average of 1.5 bids per tract. By comparison,Central Gulf Sale 166, which took place a year ago, generated morethan $824 million in high bids but on more tracts. Then, 1,032tracts received bids of 5,059 offered.