Crossed

As CME Group and Nymex Holdings continue to keep their fingers crossed that stockholders and members will vote through their pending $8.4 billion merger, the companies reported Friday that the closing date of the union is scheduled for Aug. 22. If the deal is consummated, Nymex Holdings will merge with and into CMEG NY Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CME Group.

As CME Group and Nymex Holdings continue to keep their fingers crossed that stockholders and members will vote through their pending $8.4 billion merger on Monday, the companies reported Friday that the closing date of the union is scheduled for Aug. 22. If the deal is consummated, Nymex Holdings will merge with and into CMEG NY Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CME Group.

FERC has crossed the “threshold” of concluding that the existing Order 888 allows for undue discrimination in transmission service and that there is a need for the Commission to act, FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher told an American Public Power Association (APPA) legislative rally held in Washington, DC, last Wednesday.

The American Gas Association (AGA), which represents gas utilities, had its fingers crossed that Congress last week would approve a total of $4.2 billion in funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal 2006. But when the legislative dust settled late Wednesday, the Senate funded the program at only half that level and below what it had approved in fiscal 2005, despite record-breaking home heating costs this winter.

The American Gas Association (AGA), which represents gas utilities, earlier this week had its fingers crossed that Congress would approve a total of $4.2 billion in funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal 2006. But after the legislative dust settled Wednesday, the Senate funded the program at only half that level and below what it had approved in fiscal 2005, despite record-breaking home heating costs this winter.

The industry was keeping its collective fingers crossed Friday as it watched the potentially destructive Hurricane Dennis eventually land in south-central Cuba on its way to the eastern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). The situation kept prices on the rise in most of the East. Except for a few flat to as much as 20 cents higher points, western markets tended to be weaker overall, with losses ranging up to about 30 cents.

Houston-based Apache Corp. crossed the billion dollar earnings mark in 2003, earning almost twice as much as it earned in 2002, to stand at $1.1 billion ($3.43/share), compared with $544 million ($1.80) the year before. And while most of the growth followed major exploration successes overseas, the CEO noted that U.S. operations are still an important part of the company’s operations.

The New England gas industry Thursday had its fingers crossed that its apparent success maintaining deliveries during the sub-zero temperatures so far this week would last through the bitter cold on Friday morning.

The proposed 700 MMcf/d Millennium Pipeline project from Ontario to New York City crossed a key environmental hurdle when the National Marine Fisheries Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce issued a favorable biological opinion late last month. The Fisheries Service said the project’s Hudson River crossing would have only minimal impact on the endangered shortnose sturgeon.