Wild

Brandt Energy, a former partner in the Wild Goose Storageproject in California, is planning the development of Colorado’sfirst independent gas storage facility. The Totem Gas StorageProject is to be located about 12 miles east of the Denver Airportin a depleted gas field in the J Sand reservoir of the DenverJulesburg Basin. Brandt, Star Natural Gas, Renegade Oil & Gasand Fairchild, Ancell & Wells make up the development team forthe project, which will target growing power generation load andmarketers serving customers along the Front Range.

The source who commented “It’s a wild and crazy market outthere” when asked Friday to explain big variations in price quotesfor Nov. 1-2 business was understating the situation by manydegrees. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason at all in the earlyNovember aftermarket when traders were reporting ranges of 25-30cents for individual points in swing deals done Friday.

There was no calm before the storm on Thursday as the futuresmarket experienced another day of volatile, choppy trading astraders turned to televisions in trading rooms across the countryfor the direction and strike probabilities of Hurricane Georges.The October contract bounced back and forth throughout the tradingsession as the market digested the imminence of supply shut ins.That prompted the spot month to move 4.8 cents higher yesterday,settling at $2.179.

In the wild final hours of the California state legislature’s1998 session Monday (August 31), another bill aimed at curbing theleeway of the state energy regulators was passed (Senate Bill 1757)and is now awaiting the governor’s signature. A California PublicUtilities Commission representative at the state capitol said theregulators’ remain neutral on the bill, but may take a positionwhen they meet for a regularly scheduled commission conferenceThursday (Sept. 3).

The July Nymex contract went off the board in wild fashionFriday, as the spot month reached a high of $2.45 before plummetingto a low of $2.33 just before the closing bell. Despite thevolatility, July’s final $2.358 settlement price left the contractdown just 0.6 cents for the day.