Western

FERC last week denied a complaint in which KN WattenbergTransmission LLC accused a western LDC and pipeline affiliates ofimproperly bifurcating their pipeline projects to sidestepCommission jurisdiction.

Unlike much of last month, when Western markets persistentlydisplayed weakness while their Eastern counterparts were rising, itis the West flexing a bit of price muscle this week. Rockies pipeswere back up into the $1.30s Tuesday after several had made a briefsojourn into sub-$1.30 territory Friday and Monday. The reason forthe rebound mystified one trader. “It’s not that cold in theregion, so go figure,” he said, adding maybe it was just a resultof the normal “tug of war” between gas buyers and sellers.

Cold weather helped many Western points avoid the prices dropsin the East that generally ranged from a nickel to 15 centsTuesday. It was snowing Monday and Tuesday in the Salt Lake Cityarea and that is expected to continue today, a trader told DailyGPI. Only the Southwest basins and Waha were left out of the West’sfirmness, likely because they were getting no demand support at allfrom intrastate Texas and Midwest markets, sources said.

The Kansas City Board of Trade expects to fan the flames ofinterest in its Western Natural Gas Futures Contract by offering asecond round of two-year gas trading permits for $1,000 each plusapplication fees of $300. Twenty trading permits are being offeredto non-KCBT members. Currently about 15-20 traders are active inthe gas pit so the offering potentially could double the exchange’sgas trading activity.

Seagull Energy agreed to buy an interest in a package of onshoreoil and gas properties in East Texas and western Oklahoma for $102million. The Houston-based company is buying the stock of privatelyheld BRG Petroleum of Tulsa, OK, and the assets of BRG’s limitedpartnerships and programs. The deal should be completed in about 60days. Proved oil and gas reserves total about 103 Bcfe. Dailyproduction from the properties net to the combined BRG interestslast year averaged about 18 MMcf/d of gas and 400 barrels of oiland natural gas liquids. Seagull has identified more than 160drilling locations and 60 recompletion opportunities, primarily inEast Texas. Seagull said it expects significant increases in bothproved reserves and production over the next few years.

The Western Natural Gas Futures contract on the Kansas CityBoard of Trade has continued its rapid expansion, with openinterest surpassing 9,000 contracts for the first time everTuesday. KCBT said long-time participants have been “putting onincreasingly large positions” and “a number of new participantsalso have entered the market.” A floor trader mentioned PG&Eand Southern Energy Marketing as being two big players. KN Energy,Oneok and Duke alsowere reported as recent big entrants.

Enough cold weather was either arriving or developing Tuesday inthe northern and western regions of the U.S. to arrest, at leasttemporarily, the mild price slide that had begun the week. For achange there was remarkable cross-market consistency in thatvirtually all points traded flat to up or down a couple of cents.