Counterparts

Not to be outdone by their House counterparts, Sens. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) are working to establish a natural gas caucus in the Senate, a Landrieu spokesman said.

Public-sector power in the Pacific Northwest has used up all of its surplus federal hydroelectric supplies and now is scrambling with its private-sector counterparts to line up adequate supply portfolios for the future, Bellevue, WA-based Puget Energy CFO Erick Markell told a session Wednesday at the Lehman Brothers Energy/Power Conference in New York City. Meanwhile Puget’s utility, Puget Sound Energy (PSE), faces the need to replace or extend expiring purchased power agreements with various public utility districts (PUD).

While U.S. energy interests in the Gulf of Mexico and on the coast sighed a collective breath of relief Tuesday, their counterparts in Mexico were not as lucky as Category 5 Hurricane Dean slammed the Yucatan Peninsula and threatened the country’s offshore energy infrastructure. Even though the U.S. dodged this bullet, some forecasters warned there were likely a number of other storms to come in the next few months.

Canadian natural gas producers say their Alaskan counterparts did them a favor by withdrawing the American entry from the northern pipeline race — and that they have a right to collect on it now.

Canadian natural gas producers say their Alaskan counterparts did them a favor by withdrawing the American entry from the northern pipeline race — and that they have a right to collect on it now.

Western markets rejoined their counterparts in the East as all points registered double-digit gains Monday that were mostly between about 15 and 30 cents. The source of the price strength remained a mystery to several sources who contended that fundamental weather demand was not that heavy outside the Upper Plains, Pacific Northwest and Rockies.

Signaling what may be a frequent question-and-answer in the industry in the near future, Sempra Energy’s CEO was hit Thursday with questions from financial analysts on the firm’s exposure to Enron Corp. in its future business dealings as part of a third-quarter earnings conference call.

PG&E Corp.’s recent billion-dollar re-financing loan andother moves by its counterparts at Southern California Edison Co.will not stop the two from trying to work out a deal with the statethat includes the sale of their transmission assets and assurancesof providing long-term power supplies at below market prices. Butthere are doubts about whether the financial community will befavorably impressed by the deal.

With record high spot and futures prices last week, continuedcold weather and bullish supply and demand projections, LehmanBrothers didn’t pick a bad week to raise its Henry Hub priceforecasts by about 20% for both 2001 and 2002.