Doubts

Comparing the current natural gas supply and pricing situation to the one experienced nearly two years ago, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said it is not likely that history will repeat itself with prices falling below $3/MMBtu like they did during the earlier time frame.

Comparing the current natural gas supply and pricing situation to the one experienced nearly two years ago, Standard & Poor’s (S&P) said it is not likely that history will repeat itself with prices falling below $3/MMBtu like they did during the earlier time frame.

With many areas turning quite mild for early January and some doubt surfacing about the severity of a predicted return of winter storms later this week, cash prices were flat to down about 35 cents Monday. The common range for most declines was between about a dime and a quarter.

Although off-the-book partnerships are “very commonplace” among U.S. corporations, a leading securities analyst said that what Enron Corp. did “was mutate [them] into something that was unrecognizable.”

Although off-the-book partnerships are “very commonplace” among U.S. corporations, a leading securities analyst said that what Enron Corp. did “was mutate [them] into something that was unrecognizable.”

Two certainties prevailed in California’s blighted energy landscape Thursday: wholesale power bills are getting bigger and state regulators are trying harder to salvage Gov. Gray Davis’ deal with Southern California Edison Co. But in the state legislature from which the ultimate solutions must come there was growing skepticism, despite a series of meetings with the governor earlier in the week.

Utility watchdog group The Utility Reform Network (TURN) isn’tquite convinced that California’s two major utilities are hurtingfinancially from this summer’s wholesale power price spikes.

Utility watchdog group The Utility Reform Network (TURN) isn’tquite convinced that California’s two major utilities are hurtingfinancially from this summer’s wholesale power price spikes.

Cash quotes continued to rise Wednesday in both swing deals fortoday and in what little bit of bidweek business remained to bedone. However, doubt was growing about how much longer theunprecedented recent price strength can be maintained after futuresreacted negatively to a storage report for the first time in morethan a month.