Developments

If the observations of a long time student of the natural gas market are correct, the short-term outlook for natural gas prices shows further room for decline while the longer term picture looks much more bullish primarily because of a lukewarm response from the producing sector.

The latest developments in the Enron case include the appointment of an examiner to monitor cash flows at Enron North America, reports that Arthur Andersen is seeking a total settlement of claims against the accounting firm relating to Enron, and statements by Enron’s interim CEO Stephen Cooper that the bankrupt company is planning a “broad legal assault” against individuals who forced the company into bankruptcy.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technical developments, natural gas futures slid sideways and lower for the second day in a row Tuesday, as traders elected to remain mostly on the sidelines ahead of fresh storage data to be released this afternoon. The May contract closed 4.7 cents lower at $5.078.

The cash market went into a general stand-pat mode Wednesday,awaiting developments on the tropical storm, cold weather andstorage fronts. Nearly all points were united in seeing littleprice movement either up or down.

As the dot.com stocks begin to lose a “little bit of theirluster,” Wall Street investors quickly are setting their sights oncompanies that are involved in the production of fuel-celltechnology for the energy market, as well as the individualutilities that are “embracing” the new technology, a Wall Streetanalyst says.

As the dot.com stocks begin to lose a “little bit of theirluster,” Wall Street investors quickly are setting their sights oncompanies that are involved in the development of fuel-celltechnology for the energy market, as well as the individualutilities that are “embracing” the new technology.

Chairman James Hoecker announced yesterday that a FERC staffteam has been formed to closely monitor developments in theelectric market in an attempt to identify and prevent priceaberrations similar to those which occurred in the Midwest lastsummer.

“The bear market is over, the bull market has begun.” That’s howone industry broker succinctly summarised the recent developmentsin the natural gas futures market yesterday. The July contractadded to its latest fortunes by climbing another 7.8 cents tosettle Monday at $2.362. In so doing, July is now “well above anypossible downtrend line you can realistically draw,” a source toldGPI.

NGC Corp. touted several recent developments as evidence of itsstrong position in the California electricity marketplace.