Doubt

Investors in Allegheny Energy no doubt breathed a collective sigh of relief last Tuesday after the company and its Allegheny Energy Supply Co. said that they have entered into agreements with lenders on new and restructured credit facilities totaling $2.4 billion.

Ending months of doubt over the fate of a FERC designee, the White House has re-nominated Joseph T. Kelliher to one of two vacant seats on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Kelliher, a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy (DOE), would succeed former Commissioner Linda K. Breathitt, whose term expired in December.

Ending months of doubt over the fate of a FERC designee, the White House last week re-nominated Joseph T. Kelliher to one of two vacant seats on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Kelliher, a senior policy advisor at the Department of Energy (DOE), would succeed former Commissioner Linda K. Breathitt, whose term expired in December.

Like the snowfall piling up in New England, long positions filled the natural gas pit on Thursday as bulls received yet another double-dose of supportive news in the form of fresh weather and storage (162 Bcf withdrawal) reports. By 11 a.m EST the January contract had blasted through the $5.00 mark. With sellers backing away, the prompt contract was able to continue higher in the afternoon to top out at a new 19-month continuation chart high at $5.15. January finished at $5.089, up 38 cents for the session.

The credit “assessment,” or opinion of Standard & Poor’s that surfaced Wednesday in the third day of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy confirmation hearings has strengthened the utility’s argument that the competing reorganization plan from state regulators and the official unsecured creditors’ committee will not work in getting the utility back to investment-grade credit ratings. The utility sees it as proof the alternative plan can’t be confirmed by the federal bankruptcy judge.

Doubt still clouds the scale that will be attained, but development of coalbed methane shows signs of beginning in earnest in Canada as natural gas producers seek substitutes for aging conventional supplies.

Doubt still clouds the scale that will be attained, but development of coalbed methane shows signs of beginning in earnest in Canada as natural gas producers seek substitutes for aging conventional supplies.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has obtained videotapes that he said show former CEO Jeffrey K. Skilling was aware of accounting problems at Enron Corp. at least ten months before he resigned from the company in August 2001 — a claim he denied when he testified before a House subcommittee earlier this month.

It was only Thursday that a marketer told NGI, “I have no doubt we’ll be seeing dollar gas in some markets before the year ends” (see Daily GPI, Sept. 21). Just one day later, his prediction was already coming true as a few Rockies points plunged on either side of 40 cents to register a number of quotes in double digits in Friday’s trading for the weekend.