Cents

Prices ranged from essentially flat to down about 15 cents at Malin Monday. Apart from Malin, all other declines were generally a dime or less. Weather fundamentals remained weak in the northern market areas and Tropical Storm Chantal was getting little credence as a serious threat to Gulf of Mexico production for the time being. Those factors and screen weakness accounted for much of the post-weekend cash softening, sources said.

Led by the September contract, which dropped 8 cents to $2.956, natural gas futures slumped Thursday as forecasts for moderating temperatures gave bears the confidence they needed to pressure prices. However, Thursday was not a complete disaster for bulls. Instead, some viewed the price action as just another range-bound trading session in which the market failed to break beneath stubborn support in the $2.90-95 area.

Occidental Petroleum earnings of $466 million ($1.25 per share) beat Wall Street estimates by more than 20 cents/share. The company posted a 34% gain in net income before special items from the same period a year ago mainly on higher western gas prices and improved chemicals operations.

Duke Energy earnings jumped 23% during the second quarter to 54 cents/share led by a 128% quarterly increase in EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes) from wholesale energy operations. Duke’s Energy Services division, which includes North American Wholesale Energy, International Energy and Other Energy Services business segments, posted EBIT of $328 million for the quarter, a 58% increase over 2Q2000.

Occidental Petroleum earnings of $466 million ($1.25 per share) beat Wall Street estimates by more than 20 cents/share. The company posted a 34% gain in net income before special items from the same period a year ago mainly on higher western gas prices and improved chemicals operations.

The April gas futures contract managed a minor gain Friday of8.4 cents to end the regular trading session at $5.270/MMBtu andclose a relatively quiet week on a somewhat sleepy note. For thetime being, the April contract appears essentially dormant within atrading range between $5.06, which was the low trade for April setlast Tuesday, and Wednesday’s high of $5.385, which was the initialreaction high after the AGA storage data was released.

After suspending payment of its fourth quarter dividend of 30cents/share and requesting emergency assistance from the state forbuying natural gas on Wednesday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co.said Thursday it will immediately lay off 325 employees and cutcustomer services to save $180 million. The utility unit ofPG&E Corp. plans to cut another 675 jobs if its cash situationdoes not improve over the next few months, Pacific Gas and ElectricPresident Gordon Smith said in a memo sent to employees onThursday.

Burlington Resources expects to top First Call/ThomsonFinancial’s earnings estimate for the company’s third quarter by$.06 to $.11 cents, but reports production may lag in comparison tolast quarter due to the “natural decline” in some of its operationareas.

After being held to an extremely-tight, 6-cent trading range formuch of the trading session yesterday, natural gas futures cameunder a wave of selling pressure moments upon the release of freshstorage data and reacted by tumbling dramatically into the closingbell. Plumbing a new 5-week low at $3.91, the August contractfinished at $4.031, 22.6 cent lower for the day.