Warm

While the Carolinas are known for warm breezes and friendly folks, a pipeline proposed for the two states is getting a very cold shoulder from competitors.

Adding insult to injury for gas producers suffering through awarm winter, reports from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA)and California’s Department of Water Resources indicate the PacificNorthwest’s snow pack is thicker than normal, meaning hydropower isprimed for another productive year.

The seesaw battle continued Wednesday in the natural gas pit atNymex, but in contrast to the modest gains posted during tradingMonday and Tuesday, yesterday’s session saw the bears regaincontrol. After opening at what would be its high for the day, theMarch contract drifted 6.3 cents lower to settle at $1.775, just apenny off its low.

Providence (RI) Energy Corp. blamed a warm winter and a sharpdrop in oil prices for diminished earnings for the year ended Sept.30. Net income declined to $6.4 million, or $1.09 per share, from$7.8 million, or $1.35 per share, in fiscal 1997. However,operating revenue from the company’s non-regulated business grewmore than five-fold to $33 million.

The futures market gave the impression it was heading higheryesterday when February opened at Tuesday’s high and quickly tradedto $1.85. But the selling dried up, leaving the market vulnerableto light selling for the rest of the session. The February contractclosed down 5.1 cents for the day at $1.77.

Plentiful amounts of gas in underground storage and relativelywarm temperatures once again had bears licking their chopsyesterday. But after two attempts failed to push the market lower,short-covering activity propelled the market higher during the lasthour of trading. December posted a 5.2-cent gain to $2.149 Tuesday,and in doing so, became the first contract since March to post again on its last trading day.

Temperatures that were 15.2% and 2.1% warmer than normal in thefirst and second quarters of the year, respectively, prompted theAmerican Gas Association to significantly scale back its gas demandforecast for the year. The association is projecting a 0.3% decline(0.1 quadrillion Btus -1 quad is roughly equivalent to 1 Tcf) ingas demand in 1998 to 22.6 quads in contrast to its Decemberforecast of 3.1% gas demand growth this year.

Warmer-than-normal weather caused Columbia Energy Group toreport first-quarter 1998 net income down from the same period lastyear. Results in the company’s marketing business were off sharplydue mainly to expenses.

Cash prices for the last weekend of March appeared to be payingattention to weather fundamentals for a change Friday. Markets inthe West, where it was still cold enough to matter, tended to seegains of 2-5 cents. But east of the Rocky Mountains it was adifferent story as mild temperatures sent prices down by similaramounts.