Explanation

The U.S. Supreme Court last week declined without explanation to hear an appeal by the Public Utility District (PUD) of Snohomish County, WA, which sought millions of dollars in refunds for power purchases it made during the western U.S. electricity crisis of 2000-01.

Traders were hard-pressed to come up with any substantive explanation for why cash prices staged modest rallies at most points Wednesday. There was no prior-day screen strength at which to point, and other than a warming trend in the South (destined to be brief) and colder temperatures in Western Canada and the northwestern quadrant of the U.S., the weather outlook failed to provide any rationale for higher quotes.

The boards of Royal Dutch/Shell Group’s parent companies met Friday to consider if any further actions should be taken following the 20% reserves reduction taken in January. A report by the company’s audit committee apparently puts the blame for the oil and gas reserves revisions on former Chairman Sir Philip Watts and Walter van de Vijver, the former exploration and production (E&P) chief.

Saying FERC failed to provide an “adequate explanation” for its action, a federal appeals court in Washington, DC on Friday vacated a 2002 order in which the agency rejected Williston Basin Interstate Pipeline’s practice of selective discounting of transportation rates on its system.

With little explanation for its action, the FERC announced last week it will allow a pilot program to expire, restoring price caps on short-term capacity release transactions, effective Sept. 30.

With a brief explanation in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-Q filing, Duke Energy Corp. in late August reduced the before-tax earnings of its Duke Energy North America (DENA) unit by $17 million, and cut another $2 million from other units that were associated with the trading unit in the second quarter.

With a brief explanation in its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 10-Q filing, Duke Energy Corp. reduced the before-tax earnings of its Duke Energy North America (DENA) unit by $17 million, and cut another $2 million from other units that were associated with the trading unit in the second quarter.

Bombing Iraq seemed as reasonable an explanation as any for whymost cash markets were rising in the neighborhood of a dimeWednesday. Weather was getting a little colder but still relativelymild for this time of year, so it’s not like there’s any big surgein gas demand, a marketer said. The AGA storage report of 49 Bcf inwithdrawals last week, which came too late to affect Wednesday’strading, was approximately in the middle of most expectations andthus neither bearish nor bullish.