Chase

Cold snaps, an accelerating switch in drilling targets to chase high oil prices and strong demand by Alberta thermal bitumen extraction projects are deflating Canada’s share in the North American natural gas surplus.

February natural gas futures continued to chase lower values Monday as near-term temperature forecasts call for a warm-up to hit the East by the end of the month. After putting in a low for the down move of $4.387 just prior to the regular session’s open, the prompt-month contract reached a high of $4.610 on the day before closing at $4.490, down 2.8 cents from Friday’s finish.

A New York State judge has ruled that Amaranth Advisors LLC and affiliate Amaranth LLC can pursue their lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. for allegedly derailing the failed hedge fund’s efforts to mitigate losses from natural gas trades in 2006.

New York-based hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, majority owned by JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), reached an agreement last week to invest in Louis Dreyfus Group’s merchant energy arm to form a new trading partnership. The venture, to be called Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy LLC (LDH Energy), will trade both physical and financial contracts, supported by a portfolio of energy assets that include storage and transportation facilities.

New York-based hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, majority owned by JP Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), has reached an agreement to invest in Louis Dreyfus Group’s merchant energy arm to form a new trading partnership. The venture, to be called Louis Dreyfus Highbridge Energy LLC (LDH Energy), will trade both physical and financial contracts, supported by a portfolio of energy assets that include storage and transportation facilities.

In the latest of several joint investments, JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), a private equity affiliate of JPMorgan Chase & Co., and the principals of Bear Cub Energy, LLC, Thomas J. Edelman and Robert J. Clark, has purchased the East Texas gas gathering and processing assets of Hanover Compressor for $50 million.

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. late Tuesday agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle a class action lawsuit filed by Enron Corp. investors, which tops the $2 billion settlement reached by Citigroup Inc. earlier this month (see Daily GPI, June 13).

A group of 11 insurers agreed Thursday to pay JP Morgan Chase & Co. nearly $654 million of the $1.1 billion it lost through natural gas trades that were defaulted on by Enron Corp., according to the bank’s lawyer.

In legal documents filed June 21, 11 insurance companies allege J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. conspired to make Enron Corp. look healthier than it was to cover up J.P. Morgan’s exposure to the company. The allegations are to be the insurance companies’ defense in the legal dispute over who should bear the cost of more than $1 billion in former Enron financing: J.P. Morgan or the insurers.