Compelling

After rebranding itself last year and finishing a transformation into “a significant resource play company,” SM Energy Co. plans to step up development in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas and the Bakken-Three Forks formation while it hopes to sell down Eagle Ford assets, secure a joint venture (JV) partner in the Haynesville Shale and exit the Marcellus Shale.

April natural gas futures drifted lower Monday as traders continue to focus on a rangebound market and see no compelling reason for prices at current elevated levels. At the close April futures eased seven-tenths of a cent to $4.161 and May slid five-tenths of a cent to $4.241. April crude oil vaulted $1.26 to $102.33/bbl.

A new report on natural gas as a fuel for Canada’s transportation sector outlines compelling reasons for embracing a diversified transportation fuel strategy that includes natural gas. However, significant challenges to deployment of natural gas vehicles (NGV) in Canada must be overcome, according to the report, which was released by a roundtable of the Canadian Natural Gas Vehicle Alliance (CNGVA).

The previous day’s decline of 22.2 cents by September futures obviously was more compelling to the cash market than forecasts of very hot weather continuing in the eastern half of the U.S. The result was falling prices at most points Tuesday.

In a compelling victory for the government, Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and his former right-hand man, Jeffrey Skilling, who had at various times been COO, president and CEO of Enron, were found guilty of fraud and conspiracy on Thursday. Sentencing is set for Sept. 11, and both men could spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Breaking a five-session series of lower-lows and lower-highs, the natural gas futures market turned tentatively higher Wednesday as continued and steady end-user buying was enough to meet fund and commercial selling. Modest gains were seen throughout the six-year strip at Nymex and the September contract eked out a 0.9-cent advance to close Wednesday at $5.382.

In a compelling show of proof that it is truly a weather-driven market in winter, natural gas futures gapped higher and shot to new two-week highs Monday as traders returned from the weekend to learn that the rest of November would feature below-normal temperatures for the eastern half of the nation. The December contract finished at $4.263, up 28.2 cents for the session and just off its $4.28 high.

Calling the evidence “compelling,” Reliant Energy Inc.’s first public financial disclosure of its California operations between October 2000 and May 2001 revealed last week that while its wholesale power net revenues equalled $570.9 million, expenses totaled $413.7 million, which made the $127 million gross profit equal to $41/MWh, closely paralleling prices for the past three years. Reliant noted that its operating margin was $38/MWh in 1998; $11/MWh in 1999; and $28/MWh in 2000.

Calling the evidence “compelling,” Reliant Energy Inc.’s first public financial disclosure of its California operations between October 2000 and May 2001 revealed that while its wholesale power net revenues equalled $570.9 million, expenses totaled $413.7 million, which made the $127 million gross profit equal to $41/MWh, closely paralleling prices for the past three years. Reliant noted that its operating margin was $38/MWh in 1998; $11/MWh in 1999; and $28/MWh in 2000.