Daily GPI

Is the market in early meltdown stage? At least one traderthought so, saying, “Yep, it sure looks that way” after the screentacked on a second straight day of double-digit losses Wednesdayand was joined by the cash market recording price drops rangingbetween a dime and a little more than 20 cents.

What do you get when you mix larger-than-expected supply newswith shoulder-month demand and a bearish weather outlook? If youanswered a double-digit price decline then you would have mademoney yesterday in the gas pit at Nymex. In a bearish one-two combothat will not soon be forgotten by bull nor bear, natural gasfutures tumbled lower yesterday afternoon amid an array of negativefundamental factors. Plumbing its lowest level since Aug. 28, theNovember contract slipped 16.1 cents to close at $4.659. Meanwhile,the winter strip suffered a 16.4-cent setback to finish at $4.647.

Frustrated by the inability of El Paso Natural Gas and itsshippers to resolve the capacity-allocation problems on thepipeline, FERC yesterday unveiled its own “multi-step” solutionthat requires El Paso to make a one-time assignment of primary firmcapacity rights based on shipper elections to alleviate thecongestion surrounding gas shipments to the Southern CaliforniaGas/Topock point and the other three Topock points.

A revised auction process for firm capacity, described as moremarket responsive, on Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Pipeline Companyof America won approval from the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission yesterday (RP97-431-009).

Within hours of a FERC vote yesterday ratifying proposed changesin its interruptible transportation (IT) queue, PG&E GasTransmission Northwest announced new procedures effective today.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved orders forDearborn, MI-based CMS Energy Corp. that authorize securitizationof $469 million in stranded electric utility costs, expand the gascustomer choice program and authorize accounting changes tomitigate future increases in the cost of natural gas.

The vice chairman and COO of Enron Corp.’s international divisionhas resigned, two months after the chair and CEO of the division wasapparently forced out. Joseph W. Sutton will leave Enron Nov. 1 topursue other opportunities, said the company. His boss, Rebecca Mark,resigned in August (see Daily GPI, Aug. 28).

In an effort to compete with newcomer Vector Pipeline, Coastal’sANR Pipeline, Great Lakes Gas Transmission and TransCanadaPipeLines have joined forces to provide a hub-to-hub transportationservice between Chicago, IL, and Dawn, ON.

The New York State Public Service Commission has acted to eitherfreeze or decrease the distribution portion of charges to naturalgas customers of Niagara Mohawk Power through Aug. 31, 2003 as partof a multi-year rate and restructuring plan.