Book

In a trading session book-ended by selling at the open and at the close, the natural gas futures market sunk to new 10-day lows Tuesday as traders continued to side with forecasts calling for a massive warming trend following the current spate of record cold in the Northeast U.S. At 74,623, estimated volume was stronger than it had been of late, adding credibility to the move lower.

ChevronTexaco Corp.’s stock restructuring deal with Dynegy Inc. may help it realize a gain in its third quarter income, and also help it book an increase in the value of its Dynegy securities in its second quarter report, the company said after the Dynegy announcement last week (see related story).

ChevronTexaco Corp.’s stock restructuring deal with Dynegy Inc. may help it realize a gain in its third quarter income, and also help it book an increase in the value of its Dynegy securities in its second quarter report, the company said after the Dynegy announcement Tuesday (see related story).

With little fresh news on which to trade, natural gas futures chopped sideways Friday in light pre-weekend book squaring. Bears were content that Thursday’s gains did not carry over into Friday’s trading. Bulls, meanwhile, rested on their 47-cent gain for the week. May finished at $5.411, down a trifling 0.8 cents for the session.

At its final meeting before the August break, FERC last weekcleared its agenda of several major rehearing orders — includingOrder 637-B, which was a rehearing of Order 637-A, which was arehearing of Order 637. This time around the Commission refused tobudge on the majority of the policy calls it made in 637-A thataddressed regulation of the short-term natural gas transportationmarket.

Transco’s Sundance expansion project received two major boostslast week as Carolina Power and Light (CP&L) and Southern Co.each said they have purchased major capacity deals on the yet-to-beconstructed line. The contracts will go into effect when Sundancebecomes operational in the Spring of 2002, barring rejection fromFERC.

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) parent Unicom received about $1.76billion over book value last week in the largest divestiture yet ofa utility’s fossil-fueled power plants. Edison International’sindependent power subsidiary is buying 9,772 MW of ComEd’s coal-and gas-fired baseload and peaking plants for $5 billion.

New Jersey utility holding company GPU Inc. has sold itsnon-nuclear generating assets for $2.62 billion – 2.5 times bookvalue or $510 per kilowatt. The majority of generating assets werebought by French- and Japanese-owned Sithe Energies Inc. of NewYork City, which bought assets in New Jersey, Pennsylvania andMaryland. The deal will make Sithe the largest U.S. independentpower producer.