Especially

How appropriate! On the first official day of what is expected to be an especially active 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced formation of the year’s second named storm in the eastern Gulf of Mexico late Friday afternoon. The news came far too late to affect the spot market, where all points fell Friday except for a small gain at Westcoast Station 2. Several Rockies points led the general declines with dollar-plus plunges.

It’s official and in writing. The Canadian government does not want to own a northern pipeline — and especially not one with a serious enough risk of losing money to make private investors hesitate.

It’s official and in writing. The Canadian government does not want to own a northern pipeline — and especially not one with a serious enough risk of losing money to make private investors hesitate.

It’s still pretty cold in most places, especially the shivering Northeast, but there was enough of a moderating trend under way in such areas as the western South, Midcontinent/Midwest and Southwest that prices fell at nearly all points Thursday. The 17.6-cent decline in February futures the day before also contributed negative guidance to cash numbers.

With midweek heat staying fairly strong in nearly all areas — especially the West — and with extra support from a prior-day screen spike of nearly half a dollar, cash quotes again rose by sizeable double-digit amounts at all points Tuesday.

Electricity supplies will be tighter than last summer across much of North America, especially in Southern California and southwestern Connecticut, Rick Sergel, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), said last Monday as NERC issued a 75-page summer power assessment for North America.

All points conformed Friday with sources’ expectations of softness for the initial January aftermarket, but for quite a few of them — especially in the East — it was hardly a case of getting “hammered,” as one producer had predicted. Though most points experienced double-digit retreats, a few indices held their own Friday with losses of only a nickel to 7 cents.

The exploration and production (E&P) sector is going especially strong now, on high commodity prices and debt repayment, but operational performance, corporate governance and accounting issues remain a concern, underscored by the recent negative reserve revisions at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, El Paso Corp. and Forest Oil Corp., according to a report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service.

The exploration and production (E&P) sector is going especially strong now, on high commodity prices and debt repayment, but operational performance, corporate governance and accounting issues remain a concern, underscored by the recent negative reserve revisions at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, El Paso Corp. and Forest Oil Corp., according to a report by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service.