York

The New York Mercantile Exchange’s (Nymex) natural gas pitprobably will be a lot more active on Wednesdays, starting March 1.The exchange, along with several major market players, hasconvinced the American Gas Association to move up by two hours therelease of its influential gas storage report.

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it will move electricitytrading from open outcry to the Nymex Access electronic tradingsystem following the close of trading March 2. At the 4 p.m. startthat day of the Access session, which marks the start of the March3 trading session, the Exchange will list all of its existingelectricity futures and options contracts for trading on the systemthrough 2:30 PM the next day. The contract will begin trading at 4p.m. Monday through Thursday evenings and will begin trading at 7p.m. Sundays.

The New York Mercantile Exchange said it will move electricitytrading from open outcry to the Nymex ACCESS electronic tradingsystem following the close of trading March 2. At the 4 p.m. startthat day of the ACCESS session, which marks the start of the March3 trading session, the Exchange will list all of its existingelectricity futures and options contracts for trading on the systemthrough 2:30 PM the next day. The contract will begin trading at 4PM Monday through Thursday evenings and will begin trading at 7p.m. Sundays.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. recently filed with FERC to expandits 300-Line, bringing Central New York Oil & Gas’ Stagecoachstorage project closer to completion. The El Paso-owned subsidiaryasked the commission to rule on the $86.5 million expansionproposal by Dec. 31, 2000 so that the facilities can be operationalin line with the proposed storage project’s in-service date of Aug.1, 2001.

Three independent system operators — ISO New England, The NewYork ISO, and PJM Interconnection — which have been workingtogether to improve power supply reliability, recently addedanother ISO to their cooperation pact.

Three independent system operators — ISO New England, The NewYork ISO, and PJM Interconnection — which have been workingtogether to improve power supply reliability, recently addedanother ISO to their cooperation pact.

Y2K was not an issue yesterday for traders in the natural gaspit at the New York Mercantile Exchange as they seamlessly made theswitch from the December 1999 contract to the January 2000contract. They did, however, have some unfinished business to takecare of. After opening at $2.33, January rumbled 9 cents higher tofill in the chart gap created by December, between the Nov. 19 lowof $2.39 and the Nov. 22 high of $2.35. But before any talk of asustained rally could circulate-bears, armed with fresh forecastscalling for above-normal temperatures-were successful in all butcompletely erasing those early morning gains. At the closing bellthe January contract was up just 2.2 cents to finish at $2.352.

New York-based Sithe Energies, a privately held leadingindependent power producer, said it has hired Goldman, Sachs &Co. as an advisor in its previously announced intention to sell thecompany.

New York-based Sithe Energies, a privately held leadingindependent power producer, said it has hired Goldman, Sachs &Co. as an advisor in its previously announced intention to sell thecompany.