Volumes

Sky-high oil prices and record natural gas storage volumes have busted up the 6:1 Btu parity price relationship between oil and gas for the time being, but Raymond James & Associates Inc. expects gas prices to return to their 6:1 relationship with oil, in part due to the cost of emissions credits for burning oil-based products.

In an effort to boost trading volumes and exchange value ahead of an initial public offering (IPO), the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced last week that it would expand its existing membership structure to allow nontraditional entities, including hedge funds, pools, and other collective investment vehicles, to become Nymex member firms.

In an effort to boost trading volumes and exchange value ahead of an initial public offering (IPO), the New York Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Nymex) announced this week that it would expand its existing membership structure to allow nontraditional entities, including hedge funds, pools, and other collective investment vehicles, to become Nymex member firms.

Canadian exporters dined out on a rich recipe of rising sales volumes and prices in the natural gas contract year that ended last Oct. 31.

MRT said a System Protection Warning initiated Dec. 31, in which the pipeline said it would be unable to schedule volumes that resulted in a net daily long imbalance position through Tuesday, will be lifted at the start of Wednesday’s gas day.

The acquisition of Koch’s natural gas liquids (NGL) business in July, coupled with higher prices, volumes and margins, lifted Tulsa-based Oneok Inc.’s third quarter earnings up significantly, with net income soaring to $184.5 million ($1.70/share) from $20.8 million (19 cents) in 3Q2004.

Fueled by uncertainty and concern about energy supply following the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, energy trading volumes on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) continue to soar.

Due to Hurricane Katrina causing many reductions in receipt volumes into its system and 90-degree temperatures being forecasted in Florida, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice for its market area Sunday at 25% tolerance for negative daily imbalances. It tightened the tolerance to 10% Monday as supply problems continued.

Saying it has experienced declining linepack as a result of customer takes that exceeded their scheduled receipt volumes, particularly on its southern system, El Paso declared a Strained Operating Condition (SOC) with an imbalance threshold of 4% Tuesday. The Washington Ranch Storage facility has been operating at maximum withdrawal capacity recently and linepack continues to drop, the pipeline said. It added that the SOC applies to the smallest possible area of its system and includes the following parties with takes on the South Mainline: Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Duke Energy Arlington Valley and El Paso Electric (not affiliated with the pipeline). In an earlier posting Tuesday warning of the SOC possibility, El Paso urged shippers to match their demand requirements with current supplies and to schedule payback of existing imbalances to the pipeline, if possible. It also said shippers can obtain supplies at Waha where capacity is operationally available, and that limited amounts of capacity may be available at the Keystone pool and from San Juan Basin.