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Barrett Resources wasn’t quite ready to circle the wagons onFriday to fight off a hostile takeover bid by Royal Dutch ShellGroup, but it did give Shell the cold shoulder. Barrett said itwould begin an open bidding process to consider proposals from “anumber of qualified parties, rather than commencing negotiationssolely with Shell under artificial deadlines that only serveShell’s interests.”

Barrett Resources wasn’t quite ready to circle the wagons onFriday to fight off a hostile takeover bid by Royal Dutch ShellGroup, but did give Shell the cold shoulder. Barrett said it wouldbegin an open bidding process to consider proposals from “a numberof qualified parties, rather than commencing negotiations solelywith Shell under artificial deadlines that only serve Shell’sinterests.”

“We could call it ‘the blizzard that wasn’t,'” jested a marketerin reference to the Nor’easter that had been billed as the firstbig winter storm of the year in the Northeast but turned out to berelatively benign after all. It and other market factors werelosing their price-boosting punch Tuesday, with the result thatnearly all points ranged from flat to about 20 cents lower. Thestandout exception to the general market was a Southern Californiaborder plunge of more than $5.

End-of-month convergence wasn’t very effective as mostlate-February swing prices earlier this week were appreciablystronger than March indexes. However, except for dropoffs at a fewscattered points, first-of-March convergence with indexes wasfairly tidy. Cold weather spreading into the South was largelyresponsible for initial March aftermarket prices to gain anywherefrom about a nickel to 20 cents over last-of-February numbers.

One expansion just wasn’t enough for Mitchell Energy &Development Co., which yesterday announced plans for a secondadd-on to its Bridgeport natural gas processing plant in NorthTexas. The expansion, planned for completion by July 2001, isexpected to help the company double its capacity within a year,matching the rapidly growing gas production from Mitchell’s NewarkEast Barnett Shale field.

It wasn’t the first trade conducted on EnronOnline when it debuted last November that CEO Louise Kitchen was excited about. Rather, it was a trade by someone who liked to handle his transactions in a casual way, what she called a “golf course” trader.” When he completed a petroleum transaction on EnronOnline’s system last year, Kitchen said she knew Enron’s new launch would be successful.

It wasn’t the first trade conducted on EnronOnline when itdebuted last November that CEO Louise Kitchen was excited about.Rather, it was a trade by someone who liked to handle histransactions in a casual way, what she called a “golf course”trader.” When he completed a petroleum transaction on EnronOnline’ssystem last year, Kitchen said she knew Enron’s new launch would besuccessful.

Friday’s mild firmness wasn’t terribly impressive following thedazzling display of cash price might the day before, but it didmake last week five-for-five on ever-higher quotes each day.

It wasn’t difficult to understand why spot prices were going upsharply again Monday when one considers that several new pipelineOFOs related to colder weather joined ongoing OFOs or other systemconstraints (see Transportation Notes). Freezing conditions weresettling into much of the nation’s midsection Monday, with winterstorms expected to penetrate even the Deep South by today. Thepredictable result of such a frigid onslaught was heavy heatingdemand for gas that sent prices higher by about a dime or more onmost pipes. Some points, such as Chicago and Northeast citygatesalong with Upper Midwest deliveries by Northern Natural Gas (demarcand Ventura), achieved gains in excess of 20 cents.