Described

Spurned but not passive, Atlanta-based Mirant Corp. Wednesday sued NRG Energy, Inc., the company it covets, for rejecting what is being described as an $8 billion takeover bid.

“Why is May masquerading as January?” A source’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek rhetorical question succinctly described why nearly all of the market continued to soften substantially Monday and why a significant rally seems unlikely until the latter half of January — if then.

A burst of drilling, described as nothing short of heroic by regional standards, has arrested the two-year-old decline in Canadian natural gas supplies at least for now. Production grew by 2% during the first third of this year to about 17.3 Bcf/d compared to 17 Bcf/d from January through April of 2003, according to records kept by Statistics Canada.

A burst of drilling, described as nothing short of heroic by regional standards, has arrested the two-year-old decline in Canadian natural gas supplies at least for now. Production grew by 2% during the first third of this year to about 17.3 Bcf/d compared to 17 Bcf/d from January through April of 2003, according to records kept by Statistics Canada.

Natural gas futures tumbled lower Thursday in what one trader described as an “orderly price rout.” After vacillating wildly in the 10 minutes after the storage report was released (featuring a 11 Bcf injection), the market paused in the low $4.30s and then proceeded to fall 23.3 cents on the day to $4.156, December’s lowest close in three weeks.

While current Canadian natural gas prices have dropped, officials who take a longer view described the nation’s natural gas sector as poised for lasting growth, after weathering a spell of turbulence this summer. Natural Resources Canada, in an annual review of the continental gas market, projected further growth of 25% in exports to the United States to 4.4 Tcf per year by 2010.

In what one analyst described as setting the pace for the energy industry, Tulsa-based Williams last week said it plans to cut capital spending by $1 billion, or 25%, next year and sell non-core assets to raise between $250 million and $750 million in a scheme to strengthen its balance sheet. Williams also plans to issue $1 billion in mandatory convertible preferred securities in 2002, all steps in a plan to retain its investment-grade credit rating.

In the continuing saga of what has been described as “one of the world’s biggest ever corporate failures,” Enron Corp.’s European arm filed for protection from its creditors Thursday, while major energy industry players rushed to reassure investors that their individual exposures to the troubles of Enron Corp. were minimal. The companies attempted to boost confidence in the energy sector as Enron stock dropped another 25 cents to close at 36 cents Thursday on trades of nearly 265 million shares.

In what would be described in meteorological terms as a blizzardof proposals, California Gov. Gray Davis and his Democraticmajority state Assembly leaders Thursday announced multiple newlaws to push accelerated generation and conservation efforts thatare envisioned to unfold at a frenetic pace in the weeks and monthsahead.