Became

The fate of cap-and-trade legislation this year became even more precarious Tuesday as Massachusetts Republican Scott Brown captured the seat of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Private equity appears to be finding a home in the Marcellus Shale after Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) became the second firm in two weeks to invest money in an Appalachian Basin producer. KKR will invest $350 million in privately held East Resources Inc., considered one of the most active players in the natural gas play.

Integrated commodity risk management firm FCStone Group Inc. has became the latest firm to get caught on the wrong side of a natural gas deal as the company said it expects to incur an additional $60 million to $80 million pre-tax bad debt provision for 2Q2009 in connection with previously reported losses by “a significant energy trading account,” for which FCStone serves as the clearing firm.

Integrated commodity risk management firm FCStone Group Inc. this week became the latest firm to get caught on the wrong side of a natural gas deal as the company said it expects to incur an additional $60 million to $80 million pre-tax bad debt provision for 2Q2009 in connection with previously reported losses by “a significant energy trading account,” for which FCStone serves as the clearing firm.

UBS became the latest casualty of the economic crisis Friday as the financial bank reported it is tightening its focus on its “core strengths,” cutting jobs and downsizing some businesses, while exiting others completely. The company, which was ranked by NGI as the twelfth largest North American natural gas marketer during the second quarter of this year, said it is exiting commodities trading — with the exception of precious metals — in its Fixed Income business.

UBS became the latest casualty of the economic crisis on Friday as the financial bank reported it is tightening its focus on its “core strengths,” cutting jobs and downsizing some businesses, while exiting others completely. The company, which was ranked by NGI as the twelfth largest North American natural gas marketer during the second quarter of this year, said it is exiting commodities trading — with the exception of precious metals — in its Fixed Income business.

Ramping up the photo-ops on oilman T. Boone Pickens’ alternative energy crusade, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson Monday became the first of his colleagues nationally to sign a pledge to join Pickens’ campaign to “break America’s addiction to foreign oil.”

As it became more evident Wednesday that Hurricane Gustav left the energy infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico intact (see related story), October natural gas futures continued to press the downside, coming within a couple of pennies of breaking below $7. The prompt-month contract recorded a low of $7.028 before rebounding to close out Wednesday’s regular session at $7.264, up less than a penny from Tuesday’s finish.

The natural gas price declines in early July mirrored a broader sell-off in commodities and occurred before bearish data became available, but most of the price adjustments resulted from the “sudden loosening of the supply and demand balance,” which was evident in storage data issued by the Energy Information Administration, Lehman Brothers analysts said Monday. Early in the summer the market appeared tighter than a year earlier, but it’s now “significantly looser” and U.S. inventories are forecast to close the deficit by the end of the injection season.