Daily GPI

Many traders likely hauled out dictionaries Monday in attemptsto find the right adjectives to describe the awesomeness of themarket they were experiencing. In a tremendous push inspired byrevised forecasts calling for a severe winter cold snap next week,most points measured gains in the range of 70-95 cents, anddollar-plus advances were not uncommon. Some quotes topped $20 atall three California points.

Boosted by what may be the most bullish weather forecast to hitthe industry in years, natural gas futures spiked dramatically inmultiple buying surges Sunday night and Monday morning as traderspressed the envelope of their long exposures.

If you think it’s frigid now, next week is going to be “brutal,”according to a short-term weather forecast issued by Salomon SmithBarney yesterday.

Because its initial open season period of Oct. 5 through Dec. 5included the Thanksgiving holidays, Dominion is extending thedeadline to Dec. 19 for its previously announced GreenbrierPipeline project in order to continue to gauge customer interest.

Following an approval handed down by the Virginia StateCorporation Commission last week, AGL Energy Services will nowprovide energy services including natural gas acquisition and gastransportation management to Norfolk-based Virginia Natural Gas’230,000 customers in southeastern Virginia.

CMS Energy President and COO Victor J. Fryling will leave thecompany effective Dec. 20, the company announced yesterday.

Aux Sable Liquid Products Inc. said its new natural gas liquids(NGL) extraction and fractionation facilities in Channahon, IL, wentinto operation last Friday in conjunction with the start-up of serviceon the Alliance Pipeline system (see Daily GPI, Dec. 1, 2000).

California energy officials declared another power alert Mondayas statewide electricity reserves threatened to dip below 7% in theface of near-record cold weather power demand and more than 11,000MW out of service, about 4,000 MW of which were on an unplannedbasis. Part of the unplanned loss of generation capacity wasattributed to a transmission breakdown in the San Joaquin Valley onpart of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s system.

Wisconsin Energy Corp.’s proposal to build and rebuild powerplants in the state is a little less certain today after thecompany threatened to pull the plug on its $6 billion proposal ifit is not allowed to spin off its power plants into an unregulatedsubsidiary.