Direction

While a $630 million refinancing package on Friday is a step in the right direction for Aquila Inc., Standard and Poor’s said it’s certainly not enough to offset the significant asset sales risks and desperate cash flow needs of the company. S&P cut Aquila’s corporate credit rating Friday to “B” from “B+.” It assigned a “B+” rating to Aquila’s new three-year $430 million senior secured credit facility. Aquila got a one-year $200 million loan for its Australian subsidiary, UtiliCorp Australia Inc.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technical influence to provide direction, the natural gas futures market took the path of least resistance Wednesday in extending to new nine-week lows. Although the series of lower lows and lower highs on the daily bar chart is a very real concern for bulls, they were impressed by the market’s ability to rebound off its mid-morning lows. A intense, albeit brief, sell-off in the afternoon sent prices back beneath the $5.00 mark, but that, too, became a buying opportunity. The May contract finished at $5.065, down 6 cents for the day, but up 13.5 cents from its $4.93 low.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) has taken issue with a number of recent decisions that it said indicate FERC is intent on establishing “generic” creditworthiness tariff provisions for natural gas pipelines. But industrial gas customers endorsed the Commission rulings, saying they took a balanced approach to settling the dispute between pipes and shippers over creditworthy requirements and “will pave the way” for the development of standards.

Sticking with a plan to grow its upstream business, ConocoPhillips has begun 2003 with a new direction in its Exploration and Production (E&P) unit, announcing the retirement of a legacy Conoco Inc. executive whose skills were directed toward downstream products, and the promotion of a legacy Phillips Petroleum Co. executive, whose strong suit is the upstream.

California’s often-criticized regulatory commission will strive to take a more “balanced approach” in weighing consumer, utility and economic interests, according to Michael Peevey, the former utility senior executive who was named New Year’s eve to a six-year commission term and as president of the five-member California Public Utilities Commission.

Sticking with a plan to grow its upstream business, ConocoPhillips will begin 2003 with a new direction in its Exploration and Production (E&P) unit, announcing the retirement of a legacy Conoco Inc. executive whose skills were directed toward downstream products, and the promotion of a legacy Phillips Petroleum Co. executive, whose strong suit is the upstream.

Indicative of industry-wide trends in the same direction, Rosemead, CA-based Edison International’s senior executives told financial analysts Tuesday that the energy holding company is staking its future on restoring its traditional utility operations to full financial health.

Canadian pipeline builders and regulators are pointing to the way producers need to go to sustain natural gas reserves and productivity, but the direction is easier to give than follow.

Canadian pipeline builders and regulators are pointing to the way producers need to go to sustain natural gas reserves and productivity, but the direction is easier to give than follow.