Commodity

Occidental Petroleum CEO Ray Irani said record production and high gas and oil prices led to the company’s second best year ever in 2003. Occidental reported a 54% increase in net income to $1.5 billion and a 51% increase in earning per share to $3.93 for the year. Fourth quarter net income rose 19% to $382 million and earning per share rose 16% to 97 cents.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) subpoenaed the phone records of New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) gas futures traders last week to look for any signs of market manipulation over the last few weeks, but so far the commission’s investigation hasn’t found anything, according to a spokeswoman for Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM) Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which was briefed last week by CFTC staff.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has subpoenaed the phone records of Nymex gas futures traders to look for any signs of collusion or market manipulation over the last few weeks. The investigation apparently is not targeting individuals, but will instead examine the activities in the entire gas futures trading pit over a period of time when gas prices rose sharply.

American Electric Power Co. (AEP) on Tuesday requested another week to respond to charges by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) that it intentionally reported bogus natural gas trading information to industry publications. AEP’s deadline to respond was Tuesday (Jan. 6).

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Wednesday issued a joint safe harbor statement to “make absolutely clear” that neither “has or will bring false-reporting cases against energy market participants where the false report is inadvertent or based solely on human error.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have only a “limited role” in cushioning the blow of high natural gas prices that have led to the shutdown of half of the domestic nitrogen fertilizer industry, sending fertilizer producers overseas and U.S. farmers into the arms of lower priced imports, according to a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) have only a “limited role” in cushioning the blow of high natural gas prices that have led to the shutdown of half of the domestic nitrogen fertilizer industry, sending fertilizer producers overseas and U.S. farmers into the arms of lower priced imports, according to a new General Accounting Office (GAO) report.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Wednesday issued a joint safe harbor statement to “make absolutely clear” that neither “has or will bring false-reporting cases against energy market participants where the false report is inadvertent or based solely on human error.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) were quite busy during the first year of operation of the President’s Corporate Fraud Task Force, according to a White House fact sheet released last week.