Daily GPI

Cash prices rode the continuing tropical storm news and aninitially higher screen to further gains Wednesday, but there weresigns that the big run-up had just about run its course. Mostincreases in the East were between about a nickel and a dime. Whilethat range also held true in much of the West, northern Californiaonce again tended to outpace the general market with dime-or-moreupticks at Malin and the PG&E citygate.

Adding to late session advances made in both regular and Accesstrading sessions Tuesday, natural gas futures pressed higheryesterday morning as local traders bid the market to fresh highs.However, once above the $3.10 level, the buying dried up openingthe opportunity for an aggressive sell-off that ushered the promptmonth lower in the afternoon. The September contract slipped 2.9cents to $3.03 after notching a $2.995 low.

Yesterday’s Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 174 brought inonly about one-sixth the amount of high bids the previous westernGulf sale garnered last year; however, a spokeswoman for oneindustry group downplayed the lackluster results.

Calpine Corp. offered $41 million in cash to purchaseHouston-based Sheridan Energy yesterday in an attempt to add amajor gas exploration and production arm to its extensive powergeneration assets. The offer breaks down to a $5.50 per shareproposal for Sheridan’s common stock. The tender offer is expectedto be completed in September of this year.

The proposed marriage of KN Energy Inc. and Kinder Morgan Inc.has passed federal antitrust review and has been verbally approvedby Colorado regulators, which puts the deal on track to becompleted in the early fourth quarter, the companies said.

Boston-based BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System completedtheir merger into $4.5 billion NSTAR Wednesday – one day afterwinning approval for the transaction from the Securities andExchange Commission.

PaineWebber has revised its composite spot forecast for naturalgas prices upwards by eight cents to $2.20/MMBtu for the remainderof the year. This compares to an industry consensus of $2.08/MMBtu.

BP Amoco is starting a quiet, behind-the-scenes campaign aimedat bringing pipeline rate-setting out of the realm of the archaic,making it current and market-responsive by building in annualre-calculations to adjust return on equity.

The Orlando [FL] Utilities Commission (OUC) approved the sale ofthe municipal utility’s 619-MW Indian River Steam Generation Plant(IRP) to Reliant Energy for $205 million.