Acknowledged

BP plc Chairman Peter Sutherland acknowledged Thursday that the past couple of years have been “one of the most varied and probably turbulent [periods] in the company’s history, but he said the London-based producer will continue to take risks as it moves forward.

Natural gas association officials last Wednesday publicly expressed optimism about working with a new Democratic Congress, although they acknowledged that the direction of energy policy would likely shift to alternative energy and away from oil and gas in the short run, and that offshore drilling legislation — if not passed by the current Republican-controlled Congress in the lame-duck session — would become a back-burner issue.

Natural gas association officials on Wednesday publicly expressed optimism about working with a new Democratic Congress, although they acknowledged that the direction of energy policy would likely shift to alternative energy and away from oil and gas in the short run, and that offshore drilling legislation — if not passed by Republicans in the upcoming lame-duck session — would become a back-burner issue.

Challenged by the defense team on Monday, a former Enron Broadband Services (EBS) executive acknowledged that he, too, lied to employees, investors and investigators with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before making a deal to cooperate in the trial of Enron founder Kenneth Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

Enron Corp.’s former corporate secretary acknowledged Wednesday that less than a month before the company declared bankruptcy, she told founder Kenneth Lay in a note that his leadership was “invaluable.” However, under cross-examination, Paula Rieker remained polite and seemingly unflappable, as the defense team for Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling attempted to undo her previous testimony.

Unlike the previous post-weekend resumption of trading, Monday’s cash market acknowledged the bearish weather and storage fundamentals that have dominated January so far with declines across the board. In the process prices ignored the support of Friday’s screen gain of 37.5 cents, but on Tuesday they are likely to heed the negative influence of the February futures contract’s plunge of 70.6 cents Monday.

Following two days of mostly higher quotes, the cash market acknowledged the continuing bearish nature of weather, screen and storage factors — supplemented by the extra decline of industrial load associated with a long holiday weekend — by falling from a couple of pennies to around 40 cents at a solid majority of points Friday. Westcoast Station 2 was a special case in plunging about C80 cents.

After emerging from what might be called the winter of discontent because of record high gas prices and demand, Bay State Gas Co. said it has decided to protect itself and its firm customers from any unexpected gas use next winter by cutting off service to interruptible (IT) customers from December 2004 through March 2005. However, some IT customers say it’s a ploy to get them to sign up for more expensive firm delivery service.

Peoples Energy Corp. acknowledged in a 10Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday that it has received a subpoena from the Illinois attorney general regarding transactions between the company and Enron Corp. or its affiliates.