Using

Instead of charging a fee for using its new electronic trading system, the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) plans to pay traders for creating liquidity. Under the terms of the program, any participant who makes a bid or offer on the Nymex ClearPort network that is subsequently accepted will receive payment in lieu of an exchange fee.

CMS Energy Corp. will be using natural gas in storage as part of a collateral package to raise $200-$250 million in financing for its main subsidiary, Consumers Energy, to eliminate the need for Consumers Energy to go to the capital markets for the remainder of 2002. Consumers Energy currently has about 95 Bcf of working gas in its underground storage fields.

CMS Energy Corp. will be using natural gas in storage as part of a collateral package to raise $200-$250 million in financing for its main subsidiary, Consumers Energy, to eliminate the need for Consumers Energy to go to the capital markets for the remainder of 2002. Consumers Energy currently has about 95 Bcf of working gas in its underground storage fields.

Using historical trends and assuming the once-prolific Ladyfern production remains flat, Canadian natural gas production through 2002 will be down between 1% and 2% from last year, according to research by Lehman Brothers’ energy and power analysts. The downtrend this year compares with the 6% annual increase experienced in 2001. At the same time, Canadian demand was up 2% year-to-date April over the same period a year ago.

Notes: Prices are in U.S. $/MMbtu for dry gas traded on Thursday May 23, 2002 for May delivery. Dashes in the change column indicate that insufficient information was collected to update the corresponding price. Comma delimited format (Premium Service)Tab delimited format (Premium Service) ©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press, Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report…

Although the nation needs to await the completion of a “full autopsy” on Enron Corp., an initial analysis using public financial documents shows that the Houston energy trading giant was marked by “income that seldom matched its cash flows,” according to Portland, OR-based energy economist Robert McCullough, speaking Friday to an industry conference in Seattle, WA.

Natural gas usage levels are continuing a strong growth trend as more and more consumers are using the commodity to heat their homes. Of the single-family homes constructed in 2000, 70% of them featured natural gas heat, according to the 2000 Residential Natural Gas Market Survey released Friday by the American Gas Association (AGA). Electric heat captured 27%, followed by heating oil at 3%, the survey found.

Given the inability of the natural gas standards-setting organization to resolve the issue of intra-day recalls of released transportation capacity, FERC has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would give releasing shippers the flexibility to re-nominate their recalled capacity at the next scheduling opportunity provided by an interstate pipeline.

Given the inability of the natural gas standards-setting organization to resolve the issue of intra-day recalls of released transportation capacity, FERC has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) that would give releasing shippers the flexibility to re-nominate their recalled capacity at the next scheduling opportunity provided by an interstate pipeline.