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Cash prices took a cue from the futures screen Thursday andpulled out of their headlong dive that has dominated the marketsince Monday. But sources considered the general leveling off ofprices, which leaned slightly to the softer side, as onlytemporary. Noting that Northern market areas already have startedcooling off from their recent temperature heights and that thecooling trend is expected to spread further this weekend, manytraders expect the general downturn to resume today.

The futures market shrugged off the latest AGA storage reportand made modest gains Thursday in a session notably devoid of freshnews. The August contract was limited to a narrow 5-cent range,settling up 1.4 cents to $1.948.

TransCanada PipeLines said yesterday the loss of two shipperagreements enabled it to slash the price of its 1999 expansionproject by C$575.9 million, but it still anticipates being able toprovide 76% of the capacity (208 MMcf/d) of the original project byNovember 1999. The Canadian pipeline monopoly filed its originalproject application with the National Energy Board in April, butmodified its plans this week.

Of the 36,600 MW of new electric generating capacity underconstruction or planned in the U.S., more than 93% will be fueledby natural gas, according to a new analysis by Boulder, CO-basedResource Data International (RDI). And of the projects identified,about 90% do not yet have gas supply contracts.

SCANA Energy Marketing is expanding its presence in the westernUnited States through a joint venture with Intermarket Trading Co.The two companies formed SCANA Energy Trading LLC to market gas andother energy related services in the West. SCANA Energy TradingLLC, will be a subsidiary of SCANA Energy Marketing and will serveas the company’s marketing vehicle for energy management, gas andretail electric services in California and other western states.

Independent power producer Calpine Corp. acquired Dow Chemical’s70 MW gas-fired power plant at Dow’s Pittsburg, CA, chemicalfacility for about $13 million. The deal includes Dow’s gaspipeline system that provides the plant with low-cost fuel fromSacramento basin gas fields. Key to the transaction is Calpine’splan to build a 500 to 700 MW gas-fired power plant adjacent toDow’s Pittsburg chemical plant. The new power plant will requirecapital of $250 million to $350 million and will generate enoughelectricity to power half a million households. The existing plantuses 16,000 MMBtu/d, and the new plant will use 80,000 to 90,000MMBtu/d.

In an 11th-hour move yesterday, California regulators delayeduntil August a proposed interim action that would expand naturalgas unbundling and set an aggressive schedule for a final gasrestructuring decision by year end. The proposal, which includesunbundling billing and eliminating any restrictions on current gasaggregation among residential and small business customers, will beconsidered when the California PUC meets again Aug. 6.

Another day, another dime (or so) down for cash prices.Acknowledging it was a colossal understatement, a marketercommented, “It seems like the buying frenzy is over.” Although airconditioning was still generating its fair share of demandWednesday, it wasn’t nearly enough to prevent more slides on eitherside of a dime at nearly all price points.

Nymex futures gave an early “head fake” looking to rebound fromlosses registered on Tuesday, but the move was insubstantial,giving way to minor softening before the close Wednesday. That leftthe market still in limbo without a clear signal whether the bottomhad been reached. The August contract slipped 1.7 cents to settleat $1.934 during relatively high volume of 82,830.