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El Paso Energy yesterday announced subsidiaries would developits interest in the Prince prospect, installing a multi-purposetension leg platform (TLP), in the Ewing Bank Block 958 unit in theGulf of Mexico.

Traders finally came to view the cash market Thursday much aspolice would view a vagrant: they’re suspicious of somethingwithout visible means of support. The result was predictable asprices fell anywhere from 2-3 cents at a few Gulf Coast points to15 cents or more in the Rockies/Pacific Northwest.

For those who would generate and sell electricity in thecompetitive marketplace, the future is one of many opportunitiesand at least as many challenges. “There’s no guaranteed costrecovery. You’re going to have to manage your fuel cost and youroperational excellence outside of the rate base mentality,” saidWilliam J. Grealis, chief strategic officer and vice president forcorporate services for Cinergy Corp. “You’re going to have tounderstand with your generation portfolio how many additionalmillion megawatt hours can you generate at what price to dispatchinto the market to make money.

For those who would generate and sell electricity in thecompetitive marketplace, the future is one of many opportunitiesand at least as many challenges. “There’s no guaranteed costrecovery. You’re going to have to manage your fuel cost and youroperational excellence outside of the rate base mentality,” saidWilliam J. Grealis, chief strategic officer and vice president forcorporate services for Cinergy Corp. “You’re going to have tounderstand with your generation portfolio how many additionalmillion megawatt hours can you generate at what price to dispatchinto the market to make money.

Vastar Resources would appear to be taking a wait-and-see viewof next year’s gas prices. CEO Chuck Davidson told Houston energyreporters Tuesday that “not much” of the company’s gas productionis hedged next year. Indeed, Vastar generally doesn’t hedge morethan a year out and hedges less than 50% of its production.Davidson said the company also is using more collars rather thanhedges linked to a specific price.

Vastar Resources would appear to be taking a wait-and-see viewof next year’s gas prices. CEO Chuck Davidson told Houston energyreporters Tuesday that “not much” of the company’s gas productionis hedged next year. Indeed, Vastar generally doesn’t hedge morethan a year out and hedges less than 50% of its production.Davidson said the company also is using more collars rather thanhedges linked to a specific price.

To say the weekly storage report has had an impact on thenatural gas futures market lately would be a gross understatement.Following an impressive 69 Bcf injection on Sept. 1, the futuresmarket dropped 26.6 cents the very next day. Then a week later,following the release of a relatively small 66 Bcf refill, themarket took a wild, 24-cent ride higher to close the session in themid-$2.80s. Now, a week later the question that everyone is askingis whether we will see another big move today. At first glance theanswer to that question was a resounding “yes” because shortlyafter the storage figures were released the October contracttumbled a dime lower in after-hours Access trading.

After wrangling over who would take over whom, France’s largest oilcompany, TotalFina, and Elf Aquitaine agreed to merge in what thecompanies called an “amicable” deal. TotalFina agreed to improve theterms of its initial July 5 hostile offer for Elf that was worth about$43 billion. The move follows a counter-offer made by Elf forTotalFina (see Daily GPI, July 20).

After previously estimating that an outage of most production onMatagorda Offshore Pipeline System due to a line leak would last untilnext Wednesday (see Daily GPI, Sept. 10), MOPS operator Northern NaturalGas said leak repairs were completed Friday morning, two days afterthe outage began. Only about 15 MMcf/d remained shut in, a spokesmansaid, and that was expected to be restored late Friday afternoon.