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The Barnett Shale of North Texas is certainly the most talked about natural gas play in the Lower 48. But similar gas shale deposits exist in more than half of the country, and private and public producers are quietly buying acreage in West Texas, Alabama’s Black Warrior basin, the Arkoma basin of Oklahoma and Arkansas, Michigan’s Antrim region, the Appalachian mountains and across Wyoming and Colorado in a quest to find the “next” Barnett.

Almost certainly in response to the imminence of Tropical Storm (potentially Hurricane) Katrina bringing cooling rains to the southern half of its Florida market area, Florida Gas Transmission ended Thursday an Overage Alert Day notice that had been initiated Aug. 10 and had tolerances for negative daily imbalances varying between 5% and 25% during its two-week run.

Standard & Poor’s said last week that while it is certainly “disturbing” news that Nicor Inc. will pay $38.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit and may face a civil lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud and securies law violations, Nicor’s financial condition is “so extraordinarily robust that the ratings could withstand additional financial penalties.

Standard & Poor’s said Monday that while it is certainly “disturbing” news that Nicor Inc. will pay $38.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit and may face a civil lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraud and securies law violations, Nicor’s financial condition is “so extraordinarily robust that the ratings could withstand additional financial penalties.

While a $630 million refinancing package on Friday is a step in the right direction for Aquila Inc., Standard and Poor’s said it’s certainly not enough to offset the significant asset sales risks and desperate cash flow needs of the company. S&P cut Aquila’s corporate credit rating Friday to “B” from “B+.” It assigned a “B+” rating to Aquila’s new three-year $430 million senior secured credit facility. Aquila got a one-year $200 million loan for its Australian subsidiary, UtiliCorp Australia Inc.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) is attempting to post warning signs to help prevent the gas industry from entering what might be considered the Bermuda Triangle of weekly gas storage levels. Ever since the EIA took over the weekly storage survey from the American Gas Association (AGA) in May, the industry has been lost in a sea of revisions, struggling to find its way through weekly changes that have strayed so far from the historical norm.

In what would certainly be a blow in at least the short term for UBS Warburg Energy’s push to revive Enron Corp.’s trading arm, some of the former trading powerhouse’s top traders are soon expected to leave. UBS confirmed last week that at least six of Enron’s former key wholesale energy traders, including the leading natural gas trader and the chief of the options desk, have turned down offers to stay, although most who were offered jobs are staying with UBS.

In what would certainly be a blow in at least the short term for UBS Warburg Energy’s push to revive Enron Corp.’s trading arm, some of the former trading powerhouse’s top traders are soon expected to leave. UBS confirmed that at least six of Enron’s former key wholesale energy traders, including the leading natural gas trader and the chief of the options desk, have turned down offers to stay, although most who were offered jobs are staying with UBS.

The natural gas market is broken, and an Enron-Dynegy merger certainly would exacerbate the problem, Apache Corp. said on Thursday. The large independent producer believes gas prices are out of control with companies, such as Dynegy and Enron, working to increase price volatility, which undermines the drilling plans and budgets of production companies. Apache believes the federal government needs to step in and reimpose price controls on the market or require all gas futures trades be backed up by physical gas.