Done

Just as it has done in six of its prior seven trading sessions, the November natural gas futures contract rebounded off a low in the $4.10s Wednesday as bargain buyers came out of the woodwork. Although it didn’t quite become the feeding frenzy it was on Monday, the buying Wednesday was consistent enough to subvert a late morning push down to Tuesday’s price levels. November finished the session at $4.26, up 15 cents for the session and just about in the center of its recent $4.08-42 trading range.

While surplus capacity in the Midwest is likely to continue the trend of low wholesale power prices in the region for the next several years, those prices will likely see a sharp upward turn by 2007 as excess capacity starts to be worked off, a new report issued last Tuesday by Henwood concludes.

Enron Corp. and Dynegy Inc. announced last Thursday that they settled a $10 billion lawsuit Enron filed against Dynegy for backing out of a merger agreement and claiming Northern Natural Co.’s pipeline system in the process. Enron filed the lawsuit Dec. 2, 2001 in conjunction with its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. The settlement agreement has been approved by the boards of both companies.

Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. said early last week that its acquisition of Rio Alto Exploration Ltd. has come to a close following 99% approval margin at a meeting of Rio Alto security holders. Rio Alto was expected to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian Natural on Thursday ((July 4).

As part of its affidavit on price-manipulation practices in western energy markets, PacifiCorp has turned over to FERC a “sampling” of audio-taped transactions to corroborate claims that may have been an unknowing “intermediary” in a number of “ricochet” trades with third-party energy companies during the latter half of 2000.

The significant rise in natural gas and oil prices since the first of the year has so far done nothing to encourage exploration and production (E&P) companies to increase their 2002 drilling budgets, said Salomon Smith Barney energy analyst Robert Morris Tuesday. Noting the clear trends emerging from first quarter reports, most producers appear willing to wait for compelling evidence that prices will remain on the rise, and use the cash flow from the current higher commodity prices to reduce debt and pursue acquisitions.

The merger between Niagara Mohawk Holdings Inc. and UK-based National Grid Group plc was completed Thursday, putting the combined utility company at the forefront of the New York-New England market. The $3 billion Niagara Mohawk merger was first announced in September 2000 (see NGI, Sept. 11, 2000) and received final regulatory approval earlier this month.

Kicking off 2002 on a strong note, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) posted a notional value of trades done on Jan. 9 on its on-line exchange at more than $4.3 billion. The amount marked a 75% increase over December’s daily average of $2.5 billion, which was the record month for the year 2001.

Kicking off 2002 on a strong note, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) posted a notional value of trades done on Jan. 9 on its on-line exchange at more than $4.3 billion. The amount marked a 75% increase over December’s average of approximately $2.5 billion, which was the record month for the year 2001. “While ICE already experienced incredible growth in 2001 with a 15 fold increase in number of trades executed on our platform compared to last year, the start of the New Year is proving again that we have a very strong platform that perfectly fits the demands of the current market,” said Jeffrey Sprecher, CEO of IntercontinentalExchange. “With the recent addition of many new trading participants and the plans we have in store for the addition of OTC clearing to provide credit amelioration that the market desperately desires, we are looking forward to even stronger growth in the new year.”