Brings

The dynamic duo of natural gas and crude oil followed up price-spike Tuesday with sell-off Wednesday as the July futures contracts dropped 16.2 cents and $2.37 on the day, respectively. All eyes now rest on announcement Thursday, when a number of market-impacting reports are scheduled to go public.

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) said last week that 329,000 MMBtu of royalty-in-kind (RIK) gas produced from federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico was sold to eight companies during a March sale.

The Department of the Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) said Wednesday that 329,000 MMBtu of royalty-in-kind (RIK) gas produced from federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico was sold to eight companies during a March sale.

The $700 million Millennium Pipeline appeared dead as recently as last month when the Commerce Department rejected its appeal of a state decision to block the project. The pipeline already has been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Utilizing the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA), New York state officials stopped Millennium because of the environmental impact of its Hudson River crossing, which would go through the sensitive Haverstraw Bay area.

The Millennium Pipeline project is off life support after receiving the equivalent of heart bypass surgery. A new precedent agreement with the Northeast’s largest gas distribution company, KeySpan, and an alternative upstream link to supply through the Empire State Pipeline system have breathed new life into the project, according to its sponsors.

Houston-based Apache Corp. crossed the billion dollar earnings mark in 2003, earning almost twice as much as it earned in 2002, to stand at $1.1 billion ($3.43/share), compared with $544 million ($1.80) the year before. And while most of the growth followed major exploration successes overseas, the CEO noted that U.S. operations are still an important part of the company’s operations.

Looking to trim excess costs across its key support functions, Dynegy Inc. on Friday entered into a multi-year, multi-million dollar agreement with Accenture. Under the agreement, the consulting firm will help Dynegy reduce costs beginning with the company’s information technology (IT), procurement, human resource and financial systems.

Adding to Thursday’s modest gains, the natural gas futures market picked up some steam Friday as long-expected short-covering entered the Nymex pit. The local- and fund-led move higher Friday was anything but a straight line, however.

Closing on its previously announced acquisition, Evansville, IN-based Imperial Petroleum Inc. said Tuesday it has completed the acquisition of approximately 63.3% of the capital stock of Powder River Basin Gas Corp. in exchange for 2.65 million shares of Imperial common stock and a note payable for $200,000.