Until

Due to forecasts of colder weather, a System Protection Warningtakes effect today until further notice for MRT’s mainline north ofthe Glendale (AR) Station. MRT recommended that customers withinterruptible and Authorized Overrun gas on the mainline re-sourcethose volumes to the East Line. The East Line is a lateral about 90miles long from Trunkline in central Illinois east to the St. Louisarea, connecting with NGPL along the way. If excess volumescontinue on the mainline, MRT said, it will issue an OFOrestricting that line to FT only.

NiSource Inc. has extended its $74/share ($6.1 billion) tenderoffer for all of the outstanding common stock of Columbia Energyuntil midnight EST on Feb. 11. despite seeing little change in thenumber of shares tendered or the reaction of Columbia since itraised its offer in October. It said that so far Columbiashareholders have tendered 49,645,081 shares, or about 61% of allColumbia’s outstanding stock. Columbia’s management has repeatedlyrejected a merger with NiSource, and currently is evaluating alloptions, including a sale of all or part of the company.

Due to valve maintenance, Sonat shut in the Dalton (GA) #2delivery point Thursday until further notice.

Until a major sell-off came Friday, it appeared that priceswould realize fairly substantial week-to-week increases, thankslargely to double-digit gains that started the week off lastMonday. But Friday declines that constituted almost a mirror-imagereversal of Monday’s upticks left most points flat to just a fewcents above week-earlier levels. Northern California (Malin andPG&E citygate) showed the most strength, rising almost a dimeabove the previous Friday.

Sonat’s proposed $82 million rate hike hit a snag last week, asFERC suspended any increase from occurring until March 1 and calledfor a hearing where opposition to the proposal can presentinformation.

Sonat’s proposed $82 million rate hike hit a major snag lastweek as FERC suspended any increase from occurring until March 1and called for a hearing where opposition to the proposal canpresent information.

Although indexes won’t be set until Friday, the bidweek numbersbeing reported to GPI suggest that October prices will reflectmonth-to-month declines of about 30 cents, give or take a fewpennies. A Southwest-oriented marketer said October looked a bitsofter on Wednesday, but a Calgary trader said intra-Alberta priceshad been rising into the low to mid C$3.20s since Monday.

NGPL reported experiencing an unexpected pipeline outageSaturday south of Station 304 on the Gulf Coast Mainline. Untilfurther notice NGPL is unable to flow volumes from six receiptpoints in Panola County, TX.

Costilla Energy Inc. of Midland, TX, is examining its optionsafter lenders extended until June 1 a $10.2 million mandatoryprincipal payment due a bank credit facility. Petrie Parkman &ampCo. was hired to weigh potential deals.