Daily GPI

Except for major declines in the West, most of the cash market was flat to moderately softer Friday, as expected. Sources said renewed strength in energy futures (mostly in the crude oil and heating oil trading pits, with the gas screen seeing only a small increase) was the primary factor that confined most eastern price drops to less than a dime.

Trading last week in the natural gas pit had a little something for everyone. There was a gap-lower open on Monday, a technical bounce Tuesday, a rally to new 10-month highs Wednesday and the inception of a new weekly storage report Thursday. On Friday, traders elected to play it safe. June finished at $3.749, up 3 cents on the session and just 0.4 cents higher for the week. At 74,971, estimated volume was light.

Former and current Enron attorneys who wrote the now-famous memos on the company’s apparent gaming strategies in the western energy markets are scheduled to appear before the Senate Commerce Committee’s consumer affairs subcommittee on Wednesday.

Driven by a combination of improving prices and depleting reserves, Canadian natural gas producers are stepping up their pace of drilling to stay ahead of an anticipated revival of growth in the market. Industry intentions showed up in spring projections by the Petroleum Services Association of Canada, a conservative forecaster with its members in intimate touch with the pulse of field activity.

Pushed into action by the current concerns regarding credit ratings within the energy industry, Topeka, KS-based Western Resources said Friday that it has closed on two offerings of securities for $765 million to refinance its debt.

More incentives would encourage U.S. independents to sustain their “substantial” contribution to search and recover offshore oil and natural gas, according to an industry panel speaking at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston. The upstream business climate in the Gulf of Mexico shelf is becoming mature and offers fewer drilling prospects, making it more important for incentives, said the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) panel.

A visitor wandering into Houston’s new Reliant Center a few days ago might have had trouble deciding whether he was at a conference for computer geeks or at the largest oil and gas show of its kind in the world. By the time he knew for certain that it was the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), he still might conclude it was a conference for both.

Florida Gas Transmission declared force majeure Friday due to a forced outage of turbine Unit 1207 at Compressor Station 12 in north-central Florida. The pipeline said it had sufficient market area linepack to avoid cutting any of Friday’s scheduled deliveries. However, for Saturday’s gas day FGT was scheduling only up to 1,825,000 MMBtu/d, a reduction of about 5% from previous levels. While the unscheduled maintenance lasts, FGT said, no IT will be scheduled and there was a possibility of alternate FT being impacted Saturday. An Overage Alert Day notice at 5% imbalance tolerance remained in effect through at least Friday.

Due to unscheduled maintenance at Reliant‘s Amber Compressor Station in Grady County, OK, capacity west of the station is being limited to only primary firm receipt rights. All IT and secondary firm receipts were reduced Wednesday morning for what is expected to be about 10 days. There is a possibility that primary firm receipts may have to be prorated if nominated Amber volumes rise above approximately 340 MMcf/d, Reliant said.