Enjoyed

Unable to maintain the upside momentum that natural gas cash points have enjoyed for most of the last week and a half, averages on Wednesday fell in a big way, which just so happened to coincide with the first significant decline in front-month natural gas futures since the contract rollover on April 29.

Unlike the U.S. industrial sector, particularly electric generation, which has struggled with high wholesale fuel commodity costs, oil and gas suppliers enjoyed more favorable credit ratings and profits in the first half of this year, carrying over the same momentum from all of 2007, according to a recent Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) report.

Unlike the U.S. industrial sector, particularly electric generation, which has struggled with high wholesale fuel commodity costs, oil and gas suppliers enjoyed more favorable credit ratings and profits in the first half of this year, carrying over the same momentum from all of 2007, according to a recent Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) report.

Williams enjoyed vastly better results in the first quarter compared to a year ago, thanks in large part to the performance of its exploration and production business unit — which surpassed 1 Bcfe in average daily production for the first time — and its pipeline business.

Williams enjoyed vastly better results in the first quarter compared to a year ago, thanks in large part to the performance of its exploration and production business unit — which surpassed 1 Bcfe in average daily production for the first time — and its pipeline business.

After suffering numerous outages at some generation plants in the past, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. enjoyed a 96% availability rate among its electric generation plants and increased its energy trading profits during the second quarter, executives said Friday. Black Hills released greatly improved quarterly financial results on Thursday.

After suffering numerous outages at some generation plants in the past, Rapid City, SD-based Black Hills Corp. enjoyed a 96% availability rate among its electric generation plants and increased its energy trading profits during the second quarter, executives said Friday. Black Hills released greatly improved quarterly financial results on Thursday.

Ameren said that natural gas customers of its Illinois utilities (AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO and AmerenIP) have recently enjoyed significantly lower natural gas costs as compared to one year ago. The gas charge portion of a customer’s bill has averaged about 80 cents per therm for Ameren Illinois utility customers during January and February. By contrast, the gas charge averaged about $1.10 per therm during the same period in 2006. However, the company said its customers may receive natural gas bills that are higher than a year ago because they are using more gas this year. Temperatures have been much colder during the first two months of 2007 as compared to the same period last year. For reference, January 2007 was approximately 35% colder than January 2006. The first two weeks of February were about 60% colder than a year ago. Ameren, through its subsidiaries, serves 2.3 million electric and nearly 1 million natural gas customers in a 64,000-square-mile area of Illinois and Missouri.

The market capitalization of global energy companies soared by $500 billion for the second straight year in 2006, and investors enjoyed a fifth consecutive year of gains, according to a year-end study by energy research and consulting firm John S. Herold. However, the exploration and production (E&P) sector last year languished as natural gas prices lagged expectations.