weather

With milder weather reaching as far as the Southeast and energy futures back on a downward slope, it was virtually inevitable that cash prices continued to slide Wednesday at nearly all points. Besides the above factors, sources said the soft market also was reflecting what some believe will be a relatively big storage injection report Thursday morning for a period covering record-setting heat and electricity demand.

Air conditioners are humming virtually everywhere, and that translated into continuing bullishness for almost the entire cash gas market Wednesday. Except for a small decline at Malin and flat to barely higher numbers at a few Northeast citygates, other points saw gains that tended to range from a nickel to a little more than 15 cents.

Air conditioners are humming virtually everywhere, and that translated into continuing bullishness for almost the entire cash gas market Wednesday. Except for a small decline at Malin and flat to barely higher numbers at a few Northeast citygates, other points saw gains that tended to range from a nickel to a little more than 15 cents.

Assumed normal weather for next winter and the addition of another 2,400 MW of gas-fired power generation this summer on top of the 1,000 MW last summer should lead to a 6.7% increase in gas deliveries in Michigan this year, the Michigan Department of Consumer & Industry Services said in its semiannual energy appraisal. The department said it expects 905 Bcf of gas deliveries this year.

First quarter earnings growth in Dominion Resources Inc.’s energy production unit helped to offset losses from lower power demand, the company reported last week, with operating earnings of $322 million ($1.20 a share) compared to $298 million ($1.20) for the same period of 2001. Dominion acknowledged earlier this month that gas hedges and the mild winter would cut into its earnings expectations, which Wall Street analysts had pegged a cent higher.

Extreme weather and questionable interstate natural gas pipeline capacity for the peak demand could compromise California energy reliability this summer, according to an outlook report from the Energy Security Analysis, Inc. (ESAI) in its latest assessment of North American natural gas capabilities. California’s chief gas forecaster, however, isn’t worried about this summer because demand for gas from generators will be down compared to last summer.

Based on the weather forecast and projected system demand, Sonat advised shippers that the OFO Type 3 implemented Wednesday for eight market-area groups, along with capacity allocations for four other groups, are being canceled today.

Due to forecasts of freezing weather moving into Florida Tuesday night and this morning, Florida Gas Transmission issued an Overage Alert Day notice Tuesday with 15% tolerance for negative daily imbalances.

Repairs on a Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System leak near Matagorda Block 758 (see Daily GPI, Feb. 11) were not completed over the weekend due to bad weather. A spokesman for MOPS operator Northern Natural Gas said there was still no prognosis as of Monday afternoon on when the work will be finished. MOPS has been flowing no scheduled volumes since Saturday, affecting about 100 MMcf/d, he said.