Exposure

“Although we have some exposure to commodity prices, we believe we have the opportunity to achieve the upper end of the range by continuing our track record of growth and cost containment, while also prudently managing our risk,” said CEO Robert Catell.

Adding to pre-holiday losses notched last Wednesday, natural gas futures gapped lower at the open bell Monday as traders learned that the bearish combination of storage and weather is unchanged from last week. However, after plumbing a $2.61 low shortly after the open, the December contract shuffled higher yesterday to retake a portion of its earlier losses. The prompt month finished at $2.696 down 11.7 cents for the session, but up 8.6 cents from its low Monday.

Coping with a colder-than-normal 2000-01 winter heating season, local distribution companies went into the spot market for 13% of their peak day purchases, compared to 9% the previous winter, according to an American Gas Association survey of 50 LDCs.

Pacific Gas & Electric has called on FERC to rejectproposals that seek to give California utilities less time to paytheir ballooning generation cost obligations, and would absolvesellers of penalties for not supplying power if customers can’t paytheir bills.

Enron launched EnronCredit.com, a global online creditdepartment to provide live credit prices and enablebusiness-to-business customers to hedge credit exposure instantlyvia the Internet. EnronCredit.com helps businesses evaluate thecredit quality of their customers in real time and, beginning March8, will allow them to transact in bankruptcy swaps via Enron’sglobal Internet-based transaction system, EnronOnline.