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UBS Warburg analyst Ronald J. Barone added 25-65 cents/MMBtu to his natural gas price projections for 2003, 2004 and 2005 on Tuesday, citing 10 bullish factors, including steep declines in wellhead deliverability, higher crude oil prices, an improving economy and expectations for normal temperatures.

A combination of above-market priced, long-term contracts and demand-side programs is the best formula for avoiding a return of high prices and power blackouts, the California Consumer Power and Conservation Financing Authority concluded at a recent board meeting in Sacramento. It is pointing the state toward achieving reserve levels of more than 20%, with ideally half coming from the demandside.

While many energy companies have been cowering behind ugly third quarter financial results, Entergy Corp. on Wednesday stood out in the crowd with substantially higher earnings. In fact, operational earnings per share were up 21%, setting a new company record for third quarter.

American Electric Power (AEP) threw its two-week-old earnings guidance out the window Friday, after finding that higher regulated utility and wholesale power sales, combined with favorable weather, jumped quarterly earnings about 15 cents a share more than it had forecast earlier this month.

Although as of Thursday morning it was still projecting linepack volumes above its maximum target level for Friday and Saturday, Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-inventory OFO beyond Thursday.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services on Wednesday kept Aquila Inc.’s credit rating at investment grade, albeit one notch above “junk” status. Analyst Todd Shipman said Aquila’s credit profile had been “stressed,” but found that “management has taken and is expected to continue to take steps that will preserve credit quality in the triple ‘B’ area.”

As long as high natural gas storage levels persist — now about 18% above the five year average — prices could drop to as low as $2.00-$2.25/MMBtu in the next few months, and as prices trend downward, weakness in the share prices of U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies will persist, according to the latest oil and gas production research by Lehman Brothers analysts.

As long as high natural gas storage levels persist — now about 16% above historical levels — prices could drop to as low as $2.00-$2.25/MMBtu in the next few months, and as prices trend downward, weakness in the share prices of U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies will persist, according to the latest oil and gas production research by Lehman Brothers analysts.

As long as high natural gas storage levels persist — now about 16% above historical levels — prices could drop to as low as $2.00-$2.25/MMBtu in the next few months, and as prices trend downward, weakness in the share prices of U.S. exploration and production (E&P) companies will persist, according to the latest oil and gas production research by Lehman Brothers analysts.