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The U.S. Pacific Northwest’s wildfires continued their swath ofdestruction as the week wound to a close, with blazes so hot thattwo major power lines that deliver electricity to the Northwestmelted. Electricity service was back on Friday afternoon, saidofficials, after an electronic system designed to detect problemslike excessive heat switched service to back-up lines.

At the end of a mostly negative price week, traders decided togo quietly into the weekend Friday. Nearly all points were flat toless than 4 cents up or down.

A long and often contentious processes came to a close last weekin Oklahoma with an Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) orderapproving a comprehensive agreement between Oklahoma Natural Gasthe OCC staff and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s office.

Cabot Oil & Gas announced it will close its Pittsburghoffice Aug. 31 as part of a “strategic repositioning” that includedthe sale of non-core Appalachian properties to Enervest ManagementCo. for $46.2 million last September. About 15 jobs will beeliminated as a result of the action. The remaining positions willbe transferred to existing offices in Charleston, WV, and Houston.

Cabot Oil & Gas announced it will close its Pittsburghoffice Aug. 31 as part of a “strategic repositioning” that includedthe sale of non-core Appalachian properties to Enervest ManagementCo. for $46.2 million last September. About 15 jobs will beeliminated as a result of the action. The remaining positions willbe transferred to existing offices in Charleston, WV, and Houston.

“Close, but no cigar” might as well have been the motto for thenatural gas futures market last week. It was a week in whichtraders pushed both May and June contracts to the limits of supportand resistance, only to have prices whip-saw back in their face. Bythe time all the dust had settled and the orders tabulated in thedata room at Nymex, the evidence was irrefutable. Natural gas isonce again stuck in a trading or consolidation range, bounded onone side by previous highs at $3.195 and on the other by a seriesof technical and fundamental hurdles between $2.90 and $3.00. TheMay contract went off the board in rather unspectacular fashionWednesday, settling at $3.089. Buoyed by heavy fund and localbuying Friday, the June contract retraced three straight days oflosses by closing up 8.6 cents at $3.141.

There has been a sharp increase in market power in theelectricity market and merger activity is poised to skyrocket withthe spread of electric deregulation, Federal Trade CommissionChairman Robert Pitofsky told the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission last week.

There has been a sharp increase in market power in theelectricity market and merger activity is poised to skyrocket withthe spread of electric deregulation, Federal Trade CommissionChairman Robert Pitofsky told the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission yesterday.

Feeding off Wednesday’s strong close, natural gas futures spikedhigher yesterday morning, but ultimately finished lower in anextremely quiet session. After notching a new life of contract highat $2.90 shortly before noon (EST), April was hit with light profittaking which demoted the contract to $2.851, a 1.5-cent loss forthe session.