Ending

In what seems like the never ending tale of woe, there was at least a little good news for Enron Corp. after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York approved a deal late Friday for UBS Warburg to pick up its quickly fading wholesale energy trading unit. Tuesday, the bad news returned. An attorney claimed to have a box of Enron documents shredded by employees, several states began work on a class action lawsuit, and by the end of the day, federal guards were posted in the downtown Houston headquarters to prevent any more documents from being “lost.”

Ending a four-day, 21-cent rally, natural gas futures reversed lower Thursday as weak long traders headed for the exits amid bearish weather news. After opening at Wednesday’s high at $2.40, the prompt month took on the trajectory of a safe pushed out of a 10 story building, falling 14 cents in the first 45 minutes of trading yesterday. From that point forward, February checked to either side of $2.26 on a heavy volume of 123,632 contracts. February closed at $2.254, down 14 cents from Wednesday’s settle.

Within days after Enron Corp. filed the largest bankruptcy in history, the focus of the seemingly never-ending financial nightmare shifted last week from the company’s headquarters in Houston, TX, and Wall Street to the political epicenter in Washington DC, with lawmakers on Capitol Hill quickly scheduling hearings to find out “how this happened” and the Department of Labor opening an investigation into the possible mishandling of retirement funds of Enron employees. This action comes on top of the ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into the embattled energy trader.

Ending a three-day, 40-cent price advance, natural gas futures sifted lower Tuesday, as trade selling overpowered fund short covering. Negating Monday’s advance with a 12.6-cent decline, the November contract fell throughout the session to close even with Friday’s $2.681 settle.

Following three years under an experimental program in which its customers paid frozen rates, MichCon said late Friday that it has filed for new gas commodity rates with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). The filing proposed a maximum Gas Cost Recovery Rate (GCR), which represents a price cap of $4.54/Mcf.

Ending a two-week, $1.17 price slide, natural gas bulls clung to early gains Thursday despite a considerable push lower late in the session. With that the October contract concluded its first day as prompt contract with an unremarkable 0.2-cent gain to finish at $2.395.

Peak power demand and summer gas use records fell during the week ending Aug. 12 in New York City as heat pushed temperatures well above 90 degrees, Consolidated Edison reported. Con Edison broke a weekly power demand record when 1,567,147 MWh of electricity were used by its 3.1 million customers from Monday, Aug. 6, through Sunday, Aug. 12. The week also included the highest-ever hourly peak demand, 12,207 MW, reached at 3 p.m. Thursday. The Con Edison system delivers energy to an estimated 8.9 million New York City and Westchester County residents.

Ending months of speculation, FERC Chairman Curt Hebert Jr. has informed the White House that he will step down from the Commission at the end of August. At the same time FERC General Counsel Kevin Madden, who has long had a hand in directing Commission activities, will also leave to take a position with AGL Resources in Atlanta.

Ending months of speculation, FERC Chairman Curt Hebert Jr. informed the White House late last week that he will step down from the Commission at the end of August.