Used

El Paso Energy Corp. clarified Wednesday that what used to be knownas Channel Industries Gas, which exploded Monday evening (see DailyGPI, Dec. 6), is now managed by a unitcalled El Paso Energy Intrastate Co. and has not actually changed tothat name. The instrastate unit refers to it as the A-S Line becauseit runs from Agua Dulce to the Sabine River at the Texas-Louisianaborder. The rupture occurred downstream of the Houston Ship Channelwhere most its major customers are located, a spokeswomansaid. Because of supply re-routing or fuel switching, there are stillno service interruptions occurring or expected, she added. Averagerecent throughput was 400 MMcf/d, the spokeswoman said, but the volumeof gas lost to the atmosphere was unavailable.

Power sellers have urged FERC to reject two complaints that seekto void a $6,000/MWh bid for imported electricity that was used toset the market clearing price in the New England Independent SystemOperator for five hours last May 8.

As expected, the cash market used the bullish futures reactionto Wednesday afternoon’s storage report as a springboard foracross-the-board gains of about a dime or more Thursday. But a latescreen retreat, continued lack of cooling load in northern marketareas and the usual dropoff in weekend demand raised doubts aboutany further increases today.

Natural gas pipeline carrier Enogex Inc. is awaiting a report,which could be released today, from the Oklahoma CorporationCommission (OCC) and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office of itsallegations that it was wrongly disqualified from the biddingprocess that Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. uses to select transmissionservices for its customers.

The cash market used Friday’s futures advance, along withexpectations of hotter weather this week, as a springboard toachieve across-the-board gains in double digits Monday.

Better get used to high gas prices, say Lehman Brothers andSalomon Smith Barney, because $3.50/MMBtu is likely to be the normfor a while. In a research note, Robert Morris, Salomon SmithBarney’s energy analyst, said he expects prices to average $3.50during the third quarter and $3.75 during the fourth quarter ofthis year. Meanwhile, Richard Gross, senior vice president ofLehman Brothers Energy Research, said he expects Henry Hub priceswill average $3.30 this year and $3.35 in 2001.

As traders had expected, prices used Thursday afternoon’s andFriday morning’s futures strength as a springboard to achieveincreases that were mostly between a nickel and a dime Friday.

Pioneer Natural Resources Co. of Dallas agreed to sell oil andgas properties in Texas and Canada for about $105 million, whichwill be used to retire Pioneer bank debt.

TransCanada yesterday was continuing to evaluate an electronicfailure on its 36-inch Western Alberta System. A tool used duringan in-line inspection run failed. Arrival of a de-watering pig atthe Knight compressor station has been delayed until about noonmountain time today. Work on the system between the Miekle Riverand Knight compressor station in northwestern Alberta began May 31,impacting receipt capacity by about 1 Bcf/d. The system should beup to regular flows again some time by Saturday, a spokesman said.The outage had been scheduled to end June 9.