Chance

In the wake of the current turmoil surrounding Williams Cos., Williams Energy Partners LP took the chance to inform the investment community that it is an “extremely healthy” stand-alone company. The partnership held an unscheduled conference call to address investment concerns that dropped the company’s stock price by $6.00 (more than 19%) in Tuesday trading.

When natural gas prices were sky high a year ago, the “window looked wide open” for the long awaited Alaska natural gas pipe, which would carry supplies from the North Slope to the Lower 48, but realistically, “it’s never been a slam dunk,” said Ed Small, an analyst with Cambridge Energy Research Associates based in Canada. He also cautioned that producers will have to have the Alaskan government’s blessing on the chosen route, or it would be a “fatal flaw in the process.”

The general market continued its downslide Wednesday, and traders saw very little chance of a near-term rebound, citing further screen softness, a storage injection report that significantly exceeded all prior expectations, and expectations that the out-of-season blasts of winter hitting much of the U.S. this week are about to go away.

This summer will not be a particularly hot one, but there is a chance that there will be some extensive heat waves in specific regions, especially in the West, New York and New England according to a national weather assessment by esteemed energy weather forecaster Jon Davis of Salomon Smith Barney. The SSB forecast, which takes into account Sea Surface Temperatures (SST), precipitation outlooks and soil moisture, as well as historical data, raises new hurdles for an already crippled California.

This summer will not be a particularly hot one, but there is a chance that there will be some abnormal heat waves in specific regions, especially in the West, New York and New England according to a national weather assessment by esteemed energy weather forecaster Jon Davis of Salomon Smith Barney. The SSB forecast, which takes into account Sea Surface Temperatures (SST), precipitation outlooks and soil moisture, as well as historical data, raises new hurdles for an already crippled California.

The meltdown occurred as expected Thursday in the cash market.Few points escaped with declines of less than 20 cents, with thegreatest losses of around 40 cents at the linepack-saturatedNorthern California points of Malin and the PG&E citygate,where the utility declared a systemwide OFO for today (seeTransportation Notes).

With all the trajectory of a risk manager tethered to abungee-cord and thrust out of a Houston skyscraper, natural gasprices dove then rebounded Monday as traders digested fresh weatherforecasts.

Bulls never had a chance yesterday when natural gas futures werehit with two distinct waves of selling pressure as traders unloadedlong positions. Sources said early options-related liquidation wasreplaced by storage and market-on-close selling in the afternoon,and that was enough to delivered the expiring April contract 6.3cents lower to its final resting place at $2.90. The prompt monthin waiting, May, followed suit by also slipping 6.3 cents to closeat $2.908.

Butte-based Montana Power made the not-so-difficult decisionthis week to give its stock a chance to trade among thetelecommunications and technology giants rather than the 500-poundutility weaklings. Late Tuesday the company announced a bold planto divest $1.5 billion in regulated and unregulated energy assetsin order to focus on Touch America, its thriving telecommunicationsbusiness. Of the 2,500 Montana Power employees, only 200 willremain with the company.