Various

Heat makes air and various other gases rise, but it was able todo little if anything to prevent a general rout in natural gas cashprices Tuesday. Decreases straddled the dime level at the greatmajority of points even as heat waves continued to sear much of thenation and sparked some $1,000-plus hourly prices per MWh in somepower markets.

FERC is expected to announce the long-awaited outcome of itssweeping FERC First review to staff members at various “townmeetings” within the Commission beginning this Wednesday, but it’sunclear if the results will be publicly disclosed this week.

TransCanada PipeLines created limited partnership TransCanadaGas Processing LP and is offering units to the public. TransCanadaholds various ownership interests in five gathering and processingfacilities and all related agreements in Alberta and Saskatchewan.With offering proceeds, the partnership will acquire an indirect75% interest in the facilities, while TransCanada will retain theremaining 25%. After 20 years, TransCanada will reacquire thefacilities at their fair market value for cash or shares ofTransCanada. “TransCanada will recapitalize these Canadian gasprocessing investments in a very efficient manner and investorswill receive attractive returns and tax treatment,” saidTransCanada CEO George Watson.

PG&E Corp. has hired Credit Suisse First Boston (CS FirstBoston) of Melbourne, Australia, to evaluate various options forall of PG&E’s Australian assets, including a possible sale. Thecompany has made an about-face from aggressive investment inAustralia to continued expansion of its North American assets,particularly power generation in New England and pipeline andtrading operations in Texas. Over the past two years, PG&E haspurchased the 390-mile Queensland Gas Pipeline, running fromWalumbilla (near Roma) to Gladstone and Rockhampton, for US$138million, and planned huge expansion projects, including a proposedAU$30 million extension of the Queensland Pipeline and a AU$1billion, 994-mile gas pipeline project from the North West Shelf tothe South-West of the State. It also has built an activeQueensland-based energy trading business.

Cash numbers finished the week slightly higher as various pointsranged from flat to 5-6 cents higher Friday. It was difficult togeneralize with several regions containing both flat andnickel-higher points. The larger gains were seen at Henry Hub, TGTZone 1, Tennessee Zone 0, Columbia-Appalachia, Texas Eastern M-3and the Chicago citygate.

A FERC options paper outlining various gas issues, whichCommission staff has been compiling since last fall, is scheduledto go to the full Commission next week – an indication FERC willtake action very soon. Commissioners are at odds, however, overwhether the gas issues will be addressed on a comprehensive basisor individually.