Daily GPI

Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it replaced 100% of 1999worldwide oil and gas production on an equivalent barrel basis.Over the past five years, Occidental has replaced an average 171%of production. Occidental also said it lowered its finding anddevelopment costs by 65% since 1997, to $3.03 per barrel in 1999.

Coastal’s ANR Pipeline is continuing its battle against aproposed pipeline that would challenge its dominance of theWisconsin market. ANR is calling for backers of the GuardianPipeline project to make costs of the project public to provewhether it would reduce Wisconsin gas prices.

After nearly three years and some substantial changes in itsnatural gas supply flexibility, the backers of the proposed HighDesert Power Plant about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles pulledtogether final air emission mitigation and water deals this week(Feb. 7-11) they think will get them final state approval for theirplant by spring. The final steps were taken as the project won alast-minute reprieve from a preliminary recommendation that theCalifornia Energy Commission (CEC) reject the proposal, which wasthe first of what are now more than two dozen merchant power plantproposals pending.

Wyoming Interstate said a unit will be removed from service atthe Cheyenne WIC Compressor Station March 7 and 8. Capacity throughthe station will be reduced by 75 MMcf/d, but impact to serviceshould be minimal.

Northwest reported that since mid-January it has been receiving”unprecedented levels” of liquid hydrocarbons from QuestarPipeline’s Clay Basin storage facility, “culminating in a criticalhigh of 21,000 gallons on Feb. 5.” Northwest has collected thecondensate at its Green River (WY) Compressor Station, but thefilter-separator system there was designed to collect only minimalamounts. Since last Monday, Northwest said, it has physicallytaken approximately 100,000 Dth/d from Clay Basin and was making upthe shortfall by withdrawing gas from Jackson Prairie. Northwestassured shippers it is working with Questar to keep Clay Basinnominations whole, but cautioned that at some point it may berequired “by prudent operations” to refuse gas nominated from ClayBasin.Northwest will provide 24 hours’ notice in such an event,but said Friday there would be no refusals over the weekend.Shippers can help ease the situation by voluntarily reducing ClayBasin nominations to whatever extent possible, Northwest said.

In a break from the usual price downturns associated withend-of-the-week gas trading, many markets points posted no gain orsmall increases Friday. Northeast points were the notable exceptionas expected wintery weather for the weekend caused significantprice jumps.

To say the weather had an impact on the natural gas futuresmarket last week might be the biggest understatement of the newmillennium. After all, not a day went by that neither forecasters’predictions, nor ever-changing weather itself did not play intotraders’ decisions. Add to that the fact different independent andgovernmental forecasting agencies were not always in agreement. Itall came to a head last Friday when prices soared early in the dayin anticipation of the return of cold temperatures in the Northeastfor the weekend, only to come crashing down that afternoon upon therelease of a fresh medium-range forecast for this week. The Marchcontract was the hardest hit by the sell-off, tumbling 2.2 cents tofinish at $2.57 Friday. Less dependent on the near-term forecast,the outer months managed to hold onto small advances into theclose.

In its new two-part capacity allocation proposal filed at FERC lastweek (See Daily GPI, Feb. 11) El Pasoestimates it will be able to assign “pathed” or very firm rights to3,590 MMcf/d out of the 5,100 MMcf/d of contract demand and billingdeterminants applicable to its firm transportation agreements.

The next several years will bring strong support for natural gasprices from gas-fired power generation as the energy industrystrives to catch up with electricity demand, according to DynegyCEO Chuck Watson. “I believe very firmly that over the next 10years we’re going to be in the $2 to $3 [per Mcf] price range. Andif that in fact is where this price in gas is going to vacillate,then I believe that will also speak volumes for the producercommunity to be able to find natural gas to meet growing demand.”