Yesterday

Pricing was “pretty much the same as it was yesterday,” said aSouth Texas producer Friday reporting flat numbers in the low$2.10s. Most points traded flat to 2-3 cents up or down, with a tadmore downside than upside. Several sources agreed it was a quietand essentially featureless market. A big aggregator called it”mostly a dead day; there seemed to be a lot of people out of theoffice.”

Columbia Energy CEO Oliver G. (Rick) Richard gazed deep into acrystal ball yesterday for the Municipal Gas Authority of Georgiaand saw thousands of municipal gas customers using the Internet tochoose from among a plethora of alternative gas suppliers. All themunicipals saw through that crystal, however, was Richard on theother side.

Williams Co. subsidiary Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line filed itsMarketLink Expansion Project with FERC yesterday, requestingauthorization to spend $529 million to build about 150 miles of42-inch and 36-inch diameter pipeline looping and more than 60,000hp of new compression along its Leidy Line and mainline in theNortheast. The pipeline expansion is designed to be a downstreamlink to northeastern gas markets primarily for supply arriving atthe Leidy Hub in Pennsylvania through the proposed IndependencePipeline, a 916 MMcf/d gas pipeline that would extend fromDefiance, OH. Independence, MarketLink and ANR Pipeline’sSupplyLink would be three parts to a new interstate gastransportation corridor stretching from the Chicago Hub to theNortheast.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission yesterday issued anotice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) in which it seeks industrycomments on how to create an efficient electronic informationsystem for processing and distributing filings.

KN Energy said yesterday its Nebraska customer choice programhas topped all other pilots in the U.S. with more than 68% ofeligible Nebraskans participating. About 56,100 customers out of82,500 eligible elected to receive gas from an alternativesupplier, putting KN’s program well over Columbia Gas of Ohio on apercentage basis – only 35% of Columbia’s customers in its Toledo,OH, pilot are participating – but slightly less than Columbia inthe number of customers choosing alternative suppliers. Columbiacurrently has 57,500 customers signed up.

Departing Energy Secretary Federico Pena indicated yesterday thedepartment has nearly finished its work on the legislative proposalfor electricity restructuring, but other federal agencies arelagging behind in their input.

The American Gas Association said yesterday 30% of the U.S.households with gas service, or 17 million homes, have or soon willhave the opportunity to purchase their natural gas from a supplierother than their local gas utility.

A major LDC group and a pipeline group urged FERC yesterday tofavorably consider a proposal that would clear the way for gaspipelines and their customers to negotiate the heretofore untouchedarea of terms and conditions of service. The Commission has limitedits approval so far tonegotiation of rates.

Kentucky’s two largest electric utilities – Louisville Gas andElectric (LG&E) and Kentucky Utilities (KU) – announced theyclosed their merger deal yesterday, setting the stage for thecombined energy company to become a “more formidable” regionalutility competitor.