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The Public Service Co. of Colorado announced yesterday italready has begun construction of its 53-mile Front Range Pipelinewhich, when completed, will serve the Denver, CO, natural gasmarket. The construction comes less than one month after theColorado Public Utilities Commission gave the go-ahead for the $25million pipeline project.

Retail gas marketers won a major victory yesterday when aGeorgia Public Service Commission hearing officer ordered AtlantaGas Light’s unregulated marketing affiliate to “immediatelydiscontinue” the use of the name Atlanta Gas Light Services (AGLS)and stop referring to its heritage, reliability and trustworthinesswith respect to its affiliation with the state’s largest gasutility.

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.

KN Energy made a decision to discontinue its mc2 retail energymarketing unit, which was acquired when KN purchased MidCon Corp.earlier this year. KN said mc2’s business strategy clashed withthat of KN Services and en-able, KN’s retail energy marketing andservices joint venture with PacifiCorp.

It hardly came as a surprise to anyone when cash prices took along, hard fall Thursday. The previous day’s screen dive had givena none-too-subtle signal of where cash was going. Double-digitdecreases were prevalent at virtually all points, with some lossesreaching 20 cents.

The May Nymex contract nudged 0.4 cents lower to $2.475 Friday,amid a day when the contract could neither sustain a move belowtechnical support at $2.44 nor rise any higher than $2.498. Totalestimated volume came in at 46,216, much of which was the work oftraders covering positions before the weekend, a source said.

Just when it appeared the May Nymex contract was in a positionto resume its upward ways, the contract duped hopeful bullishtraders by falling 4.2 cents to $2.479 Thursday. Perhaps moreimportant than the magnitude of the loss is that May failed to moveabove resistance at $2.56, and that the contract spent time belowits significant $2.465 level for a time Thursday before recoveringduring its final half hour of trading.

If bullish natural gas futures traders became excited when theMay contract moved above the $2.70 mark yesterday morning, theirenthusiasm was tempered following the spot month’s daily close of$2.689. Although this represents a daily gain of 2.1 cents, onetrader is concerned that futures prices will be falling in the daysto come. “I was hoping a break above $2.70 would lead to a move to$2.80, but traders seemed pretty quick to slam the door. It lookslike profit taking has started ahead of the long holiday weekend,”he said. The New York Mercantile Exchange will be closed for GoodFriday.

The next challenge to the troubled Canadian natural gas pipelineestablishment opens May 25, when the National Energy Board hasscheduled the start for hearings on AEC Suffield Gas Pipeline.