NEI's Energy Markets Report - May 19-23, 2008

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week:

Electricity peak prices decreased $1-24/MWh at all hubs except for Entergy. PJM West fell to $64/MWh, the lowest price it’s been over the past four months, due to moderate temperatures. Entergy prices increased to $83/MWh, the highest price since the end of July 2006, due to hot temperatures at the end of last week. ERCOT peak prices fell less than $1/MWh last week; however, the ERCOT Houston and ERCOT South hubs “baffled” experts as the peak prices rocketed to $315-440/MWh last Friday – Platts, Megawatt Daily 5/27 (see pages 1 and 3).

Estimated nuclear plant availability increased to 88 percent last week. Three units finished refueling outages and three units began maintenance (see pages 2 and 4).

Gas prices at the Henry Hub fell $0.04 to $11.31/MMBtu (see pages 1 and 3). According to EIA, the final leg of the Rockies Express West pipeline is in service. This 210-mile segment connects Audrain County, Missouri, with almost 500 miles of REX-West that had already begun service in January 2008. REX-West is a 42-inch-diameter pipeline that begins in Weld County, Colorado providing 1.5 Bcf per day of capacity from Rockies production fields to markets in the Midwest. By the end of 2009, the pipeline is expected to expand further eastward to Clarington, Ohio, as part of the 638-mile REX-East segment.

Uranium spot prices remained at $60/lb U3O8 for the third week in a row (see pages 1 and 3). According to EIA’s 2007 Uranium Marketing Annual Report, owners and operators of U.S. civilian nuclear power reactors purchased a total of 51 million pounds U3O8e (uranium oxide equivalent) of deliveries at a weighted-average price of $32.78 per pound U3O8e. The 2007 total of 51 million pounds U3O8e decreased 23 percent compared with the 2006 total of 67 million pounds U3O8e. Eight percent of the 51 million pounds U3O8e delivered in 2007 was U.S.-origin uranium at a weighted-average price of $28.89 per pound U3O8e. Foreign-origin uranium accounted for the remaining 47 million pounds (92 percent) of deliveries at a weighted-average price of $33.05 per pound U3O8e.

For the report click here. It is also located on NEI's Financial Center webpage.