Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions). Our first question comes from Michael Blum of Wachovia. Your line is open sir.
Michael Blum - Wachovia
Couple of quick questions, one, Jim I appreciated your commentary on the petrochem market. I guess I was looking for the conclusion meaning, what does that mean for your NGL pipeline volumes for the rest of '09? How do you see that being impacted?
Jim Kneale
Michael, I had a comment in there, maybe I wasn't real clear. We have actually seen our volumes in our sales to petrochemical company's increase, partially because some have come back online but also the customers we were selling to were actually selling them a larger portion of their supply right now. So for our system and our pipelines, we're fairly positive on that flow of ethane to those petrochemical companies.
John Gibson
The other thing I would add is that Terry and his people have been very successful in building direct sales to the petrochems which has also contributed to our increased volumes. So, perhaps the main balance hasn't changed but our share of the market has. Anything you'd like to add Terry?
Terry Spencer
Yeah. Mike, this is Terry. If you look at [peak doc] numbers, and you compare March actuals to February, that's up actually 20% which is kind of surprising when you consider the economic environment that we're in.
As we've communicated with the petchems directly, we continue to get strong orders and so the view from the petchems going forward and on into the summer is their continued strong orders. You're looking at 765,000 barrels a day of ethane feed being consumed in April which is really surprising considering the environment.
So the economic fundamentals are week, the actual performance of the petchems has being relatively strong which has been surprising.
Michael Blum - Wachovia
You don't see your projection of perhaps lower demand for propane? I guess that will not offset the increasing demand for ethane, net-net it will be up.
Jim Kneale
Yes, net-net it will be up.
Michael Blum - Wachovia
The second question was just on the hedges for 2010. I just wanted to clarify, are those new hedges you've put in place since your last report?
Jim Kneale
Short answer is yes.
Michael Blum - Wachovia
So then that backs the question. It's a small number but on the NGL hedges, that would appear to be at above market price based on the strips. So I'm just curious, what's going on there? Did you pay upfront something to get those or am I missing something?
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