Winter

While water levels in the Pacific Northwest, remaining winter weather in the East and even the advent of war with Iraq all could impact this summer’s natural gas and electricity prices in Nevada, Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Corp. officials indicated Monday they are not overly concerned. They do admit the short-term future is unclear because of the many widely diverse variables involved.

Devon Energy Corp. said it is moving forward with its winter exploration program in Canada’s Mackenzie Delta, partnering with Shell Canada for one well and participating on a separate license with Petro-Canada on a second well.

In sympathy with higher crude prices, and as another winter storm approached the Northeast, natural gas futures turned modestly higher in light pre-holiday trading Tuesday. Book squaring was the main feature in the abbreviated session. January closed 3 cents higher at $5.146.

Williams said Friday — the first day of the winter season — that it has placed two expansion projects into service, increasing capacity on its Transco pipeline system by 260,000 Dth/d. Through its MarketLink Phase two and Leidy East expansion projects, the company has added firm transportation capacity to serve markets in the Northeast.

Williams said Friday — the first day of the winter season — that it has placed two expansion projects into service, increasing capacity on its Transco pipeline system by 260,000 Dth/d. Through its MarketLink Phase two and Leidy East expansion projects, the company has added firm transportation capacity to serve markets in the Northeast.

Bolstered by a return of winter-like weather in northern market areas and parts of the West, along with positive natural gas futures during morning trading, the cash market saw a surge in prices Monday. Although gains went as high as 20-25 cents or so in California and at some Northeast citygates, most were more modest on either side of a dime. San Juan and intra-Alberta numbers generally ranged from flat to less than a nickel higher.

Despite a substantial amount of near-winter weather lingering in the Midwest and Northeast market areas, softer cash prices Wednesday showed conclusively that the early-week rally had run out of steam. A few scattered points were flat to barely lower, but otherwise losses ranged up to about 30 cents at the PG&E citygate. Most decreases were around a dime or less, however.

As the natural gas industry revs up for the coming winter, Fitch Ratings said three industry trends will likely affect the credit quality of the U.S. natural gas pipeline sector in the near term. The negative overhang of ongoing parent company-level credit problems and liquidity issues, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and evolving counterparty credit risk could alter the outlook for U.S. natural gas pipelines, according to an article appearing in the latest Fitch Ratings Oil & Gas Insights newsletter.

After stumbling last heating season Canadian natural-gas exports show signs of getting back on their feet, but when they will resume growing — or even whether they can — remains an open question. For the first time since the onset of energy deregulation and free trade, exports fell in the opening half of the current natural-gas contract year ending Oct. 31, according to records of the National Energy Board.