Execs

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday charged Enron Corp.’s former outside auditor, Merrill Lynch & Co., and four of its ex-senior executives with helping to carry out securities fraud at the Houston energy company.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) last week charged Enron Corp. and Hunter S. Shively, manager of Enron’s central futures trading desk, with using EnronOnline (EOL) to manipulate the natural gas market, causing a spike in prices at the Henry Hub and affecting the futures price on the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex). The CFTC also said Enron operated EnronOnline as an illegal futures exchange.

The field of firms in the U.S. formed to buy gas and power assets expanded last week after StoneCap Management LLC announced the formation of the StoneCap Group L.P., whose principals include two former Dynegy Inc. executives, Hugh Tarpley and Milton Scott.

NRG Energy Inc. last week said that it has reached a settlement with all seven former executives who filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition against NRG late in 2002. The Xcel Energy subsidiary will ask the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota to approve the settlement and dismiss the petition.

For those who believe the worst is over, think again. The wholesale energy industry, which has lost 88% of its market value in the past year, has not hit bottom yet, according to several energy executives. It could be as short as four, or as long as seven years, before the wholesale sector earns market confidence again, and most assuredly, an entire new set of players will be in the game.

For those who believe the worst is over, think again. The wholesale energy industry, which has lost 88% of its market value in the past year, has not hit bottom yet, according to several energy executives. It could be as short as four, or as long as seven years, before the wholesale sector earns market confidence again, and most assuredly, an entire new set of players will be in the game.

North America’s unquenchable thirst for natural gas could grow to 89 Bcf/d by 2015 (from about 59.4 Bcf/d last year), necessitating a push to expand existing liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and begin development of two northern natural gas pipelines, energy executives said in Houston Wednesday.

Having been eyewitnesses to a wave of debt rating downgrades, anemic wholesale power prices and the collapse of the once-mighty Enron over the past year, a majority of power industry executives recently surveyed don’t expect the sector to rebound until 2004 at the earliest.

Five former executives at NRG Energy late Friday afternoon filed an involuntary Chapter 11 petition against the Xcel Energy unit, but NRG said that despite the move, it intends to continue to conduct business as usual.