Adding

Natural gas futures continued lower in an abbreviatedpre-holiday trading session Friday, adding to losses achievedWednesday and Thursday and stifling the hopes of bulls who werelooking for short-covering buying into the long weekend. The Augustcontract finished down 2.2 cents on the day at $2.287, 13.3 centsless than Wednesday’s high price. Estimated volume was an extremelymodest 28,784.

Adding to its long list of utility, marketing and transportationassets, Aquila Energy parent Utilicorp United entered into astrategic partnership with Quanta Services Wednesday for $400million. Utilicorp hopes to increase its profit potential in thederegulating electric and telecommunications markets by teamingwith the Houston-based Quanta, a provider of specialized servicesfor companies in those industries.

Adding to the lengthy and often heated controversy surrounding its contractual relationship with El Paso Natural Gas, Dynegy has signed a fourth contract with El Paso covering 196 MMcf/d of alternate firm backhaul capacity on the southwestern pipeline.

Adding to the lengthy and often heated controversy surroundingits contractual relationship with El Paso Natural Gas, Dynegy hassigned up for another 196 MMcf/d of El Paso pipeline capacity,bringing under its control a total of 1.5 Bcf/d of space on thesouthwestern pipeline.

Illinova Energy Partners (IEP) purchased the Chicago holdings ofthe natural gas marketer Energy Dynamics Inc. last week, adding1,400 commercial and industrial customers to its Midwest base.Illinova also said the purchase will push its overall gas revenuesabove $100 million annually. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed.

Adding to Monday’s gains the natural gas futures continuedhigher at Nymex yesterday as technical buying lifted the Junecontract in active trading. And with that 4.8-cent rally to $2.359,June was able to successfully fill in $2.31-33 daily chart gap andnotch its highest daily close in more than a year.

Illinova Energy Partners (IEP) purchased the Chicago holdings ofthe natural gas marketer Energy Dynamics Inc. yesterday, adding1,400 commercial and industrial customers to its Midwest base.Illinova also said the purchase will push its overall gas revenuesabove $100 million annually. Terms of the transaction were notdisclosed.

Adding to gains achieved in the Monday evening Access tradingsession, the May contract continued higher yesterday morning asbulls confidently bolstered their long positions. However, recentgains notched by natural gas have not come without a fight andTuesday was no different. After topping out at $2.17, the promptmonth reversed direction in the afternoon, nearly erasing itsadvance by the close. May finished at $2.136, up 0.8 cents on theday.

BP Amoco might want to change its name to BP, Etc. now that ithas announced plans to acquire Los Angeles-based Atlantic RichfieldCo. (Arco) in a $26.8 billion deal. The news comes only monthsafter the closing late last year of the marriage of BP and Amoco.