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Florida Gas Transmission did not extend an Overage Alert Day notice(see Daily GPI, Dec. 6) beyond Friday.

The cash market continued to muddle around Monday in a generallyflat mode with a slight bias to the upside as traders tried toassess whether there was enough cold weather around to reallymatter. To Houston sources donning sweaters for possibly the firsttime this season, the answer might have seemed to be yes, but toothers it was no as they noted the abundance of available storageand the fact that only a few markets were experiencing sub-freezingtemperatures. Most points were flat to a couple of cents higher,with the declines of any size occurring at Northeast citygates(although Transco Zone 6-non NYC bucked the trend there with asmall gain). Northeast weather was rainy but not freezing.

BP Amoco and Enogex Inc. decided to swap gathering systems inthe Arkoma Basin so the companies might capitalize on theirproducing well interests. BP Amoco received Enogex’s Red Oak gasgathering system in Latimer County in exchange for its Kinta andSouth Bokoshe gas gathering systems in LeFlore and Haskellcounties. No cash was involved in the deal.

For a lower-demand weekend period preceded by a falling screenand expected to continue the unseasonably warm weather pattern thatdominated nearly all of November, there was surprising firmness inmost of the cash market Friday. Except for further Northeastcitygate declines, essentially flat quotes prevailed elsewhere. Onetrader suggested the moderate gain in futures Thursday may haveprovided a modicum of psychological support for cash traders Fridaymorning.

Ending a partnership in existence since 1994, Columbia’sliquefied natural gas (LNG) subsidiary, Columbia LNG, bought PepcoEnergy Co.’s 50% interest of the Cove Point LNG facility inMaryland for an undisclosed sum, the companies said last week.Columbia also announced plans to recommission Cove Point’smothballed marine terminal to handle imports for the first time in20 years. The purchase needs Federal Trade Commission approvalunder the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and Columbia said it hopes toclose the deal by the end of next month and file forrecommissioning the terminal later next year.

A failed technical move higher, followed by a brisk liquidationof fresh longs left even veteran traders shaking their heads in thenatural gas pit Friday, as prices plummeted lower amid heavytrading. The January contract was dealt the largest blow, tumbling13 cents lower to close at $2.331. February also experienced doubledigit losses, slipping 10.3 cents to $2.335.

Gas restructuring filings made last week with the PennsylvaniaPublic Utility Commission by Penn Fuel Gas and PECO Energy Co. haveset the stage for only the fourth state in the country to providestatewide access to the retail gas market. Out of the 22 stateswith gas utilities employing pilot programs, only New Mexico, WestVirginia and New York allow gas customers statewide to choose theirgas suppliers so far. Pennsylvania regulators now say statewideunbundling will occur by July.

Prairielands Energy Marketing Inc., a Bismarck, ND-basedsubsidiary of MDU Resources Group, and Preston Reynolds & Co.,based in Denver, formed Sage Gas Alliance LLC to focus onmarketing gas supplies originating in the Rockies region,principally within the Powder River Basin of Wyoming where PR&Cis a significant producer and developer of coalbed methane gas.

Columbia Gas of Ohio and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio(PUCO) announced a renewed rate freeze last week that Columbia saidwill pave the way for its popular customer choice program tocontinue until 2004. The agreement, which the company said modifiedand extended a five-year deal struck in 1994, was negotiated byColumbia, the Ohio Consumer’s Counsel (OCC), natural gas marketersand a coalition of Columbia customer groups.