By STEVE EVERLY - The Kansas City Star Date: 01/20/01 22:15 As natural gas prices rose in December, traders at the New York Mercantile Exchange kept one eye on the weather forecast and another on a weekly gas storage number. The storage figures showed utilities withdrawing huge amounts of gas, and the forecast was for frigid weather. Traders put the two together, anticipated a supply crunch and drove gas prices to record heights. "Traders do that all the time; they're looking forward," said William Burson, a trader. "It makes the market for natural gas." But the market's response perplexed Chris McGill, the American Gas Association's director of gas supply and transportation. He had compiled the storage numbers since they were first published in 1994, and in his view the numbers were being misinterpreted to show a situation far bleaker than reality. "It's a little frustrating that they don't take the time to understand what we are reporting," McGill said. As consumer outrage builds over high heating bills, the hunt for reasons -- and culprits -- is on. Some within the natural gas industry are pointing fingers at Wall Street. Stephen Adik, senior vice president of the Indiana utility NiSource, recently stepped before an industry conference and blamed the market's speculators for the rise in gas prices. "It's my firm belief ... that today's gas prices are being manipulated," Adik told the trade magazine Public Utilities Fortnightly. In California, where natural gas spikes have contributed to an electric utility crisis, six investigations are looking into the power industry. Closer to home, observers note that utilities and regulators share the blame for this winter's startling gas bills, having failed to protect their customers and constituents from such price spikes. Most utilities, often with the acquiescence of regulators, failed to take precautions such as fixed-rate contracts and hedging -- a sort of price insurance -- that could have protected their customers by locking in gas prices before they soared. "We're passing on our gas costs, which we have no control over," said Paul Snider, a spokesman for Missouri Gas Energy. But critics say the utilities shirked their responsibility to customers. "There's been a failure of risk management by utilities, and that needs to change," said Ed Krapels, director of gas power services for Energy Security Analysis Inc., an energy consulting firm in Wakefield, Mass. Hot topic Consumers know one thing for certain: Their heating bills are up sharply. In many circles, little else is discussed. The Rev. Vincent Fraser of Glad Tidings Assembly of God in Kansas City is facing a $1,456 December bill for heating the church -- more than double the previous December's bill. Church members are suffering from higher bills as well. The Sunday collection is down, said Fraser, who might have to forgo part of his salary. For the first time, the church is unable to meet its financial pledge to overseas missionaries because the money is going to heating. "It's the talk of the town here," he said. A year ago that wasn't a fear. Wholesale gas prices hovered just above $2 per thousand cubic feet -- a level that producers say didn't make it worthwhile to drill for gas. Utilities were even cutting the gas prices paid by customers. But trouble was brewing. By spring, gas prices were hitting $4 per thousand cubic feet, just as utilities were beginning to buy gas to put into storage for winter. There was a dip in the fall, but then prices rebounded. By early November, prices were at $5 per thousand cubic feet. The federal Energy Information Administration was predicting sufficient but tight gas supplies and heating bills that would be 30 percent to 40 percent higher. But $10 gas was coming. Below-normal temperatures hit much of the country, including the Kansas City area, and fears about tight supplies roiled the gas markets. "It's all about the weather," said Krapels of Energy Security Analysis. Wholesale prices exploded to $10 per thousand cubic feet, led by the New York traders. Natural gas sealed its reputation as the most price-volatile commodity in the world. Setting the price In the 1980s, the federal government took the caps off the wellhead price of gas, allowing it to float. In 1990, the New York Mercantile began trading contracts for future delivery of natural gas, and that market soon had widespread influence over gas prices. The futures contracts are bought and sold for delivery of natural gas as soon as next month or as far ahead as three years. Suppliers can lock in sale prices for the gas they expect to produce. And big gas consumers, from utilities to companies such as Farmland Industries Inc., can lock in what they pay for the gas they expect to use. There are also speculators who trade the futures contracts with no intention of actually buying or selling the gas -- and often with little real knowledge of natural gas. But if they get on the right side of a price trend, traders don't need to know much about gas -- or whatever commodity they're trading. Like all futures, the gas contracts are purchased on credit. That leverage adds to their volatility and to the traders' ability to make or lose a lot of money in a short time. As December began, the price of natural gas on the futures market was less than $7 per thousand cubic feet. By the end of the month it was nearly $10. Much of the spark for the rally came from the American Gas Association's weekly storage numbers. Utilities buy ahead and store as much as 50 percent of the gas they expect to need in the winter. Going into the winter, the storage levels were about 5 percent less than average, in part because some utilities were holding off on purchasing, in hopes that the summer's unusually high $4 to $5 prices would drop. Still, the American Gas Association offered assurances that supplies would be sufficient. But when below-normal temperatures arrived in November, the concerns increased among traders that supplies could be insufficient. Then the American Gas Association reported the lowest year-end storage numbers since they were first published in 1994. Still, said the association's McGill, there was sufficient gas in storage. But some utility executives didn't share that view. William Eliason, vice president of Kansas Gas Service, said that if December's cold snap had continued into January, there could have been a real problem meeting demand. "I was getting worried," he said. Then suddenly the market turned when January's weather turned warmer. Wednesday's storage numbers were better than expected, and futures prices dropped more than $1 per thousand cubic feet. Just passing through Some utilities said there was little else to do about the price increase but pass their fuel costs on to customers. Among area utilities, Kansas Gas Service increased its customers' cost-of-gas charge earlier this month to $8.68 per thousand cubic feet. And Missouri Gas Energy has requested an increase to $9.81, to begin Wednesday. Sheila Lumpe, chairwoman of the Missouri Public Service Commission, said last month that because utilities passed along their wholesale costs, little could be done besides urging consumers to join a level-payment plan and to conserve energy. Kansas Gas Service had a small hedging program in place, which is expected to save an average customer about $25 this winter. Missouri Gas Energy has no hedging program. It waited until fall to seek an extension of the program and then decided to pass when regulators would not guarantee that it could recover its hedging costs. Now utilities are being asked to justify the decisions that have left customers with such high gas bills. And regulators are being asked whether they should abandon the practice of letting utilities pass along their fuel costs. On Friday, Doug Micheel, senior counsel of the Missouri Office of the Public Counsel, said his office would ask the Missouri Public Service Commission to perform an emergency audit of Missouri Gas Energy's gas purchasing practices. "Consumers are taking all the risk," Micheel said. "It's time to consider some changes." To reach Steve Everly, call (816) 234-4455 or send e-mail to severly@kcstar.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- All content , 2001 The Kansas City Star