Face

UBS Warburg, which took over Enron Corp.’s energy trading arm in February for no cash down, made a deal to protect itself from liability associated with the bankrupt company’s questionable trading practices. However, the UBS AG subsidiary hired several of the upper echelon in Enron’s trading team, including former COO Greg Whalley, who is now the managing director of the UBS energy trading unit. Now under the microscope of FERC in its investigation of California trading practices, some want to know if the “new” UBS energy traders are using the same old tactics of their former employer.

Prices fell about 10-20 cents across the board Thursday in what traders generally considered as “reality” catching up with the gas market. But one producer is expecting at least a mild rally today after the screen turned a negative morning into an afternoon settlement that was a little more than a nickel higher.

The party is over, but after three years the chip and punch bowls are still full. The electricity futures contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange never really attracted a crowd, and Nymex President J. Robert Collins Jr. finally called it quits last Thursday on six electricity contracts: California-Oregon Border, Palo Verde, Cinergy, Entergy, PJM and Mid-Columbia.

Adding to the losses triggered by the release of fresh American Gas Association storage data Wednesday, natural gas continued lower early in the session yesterday only to stabilize at midday as scale-down buying interest met equally with profit-taking long liquidation. The March contract finished the session at $2.186, down 5.9 cents for the day, and just off its three-day low at $2.18.

Natural-gas shippers face extra costs of C$275 million (US$172 million) per year as a result of proposals by TransCanada PipeLines, according to calculations by an irate Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In written preliminaries for hearings before the National Energy Board that promise to be long and hot after they start Feb. 19, CAPP calls TransCanada’s financial requests “grossly excessive.” Other protesters, while more diplomatic, are also firm — including Mirant Canada Energy Marketing Ltd.

Natural gas shippers face extra costs of C$275 million (US$172 million) per year as a result of proposals by TransCanada PipeLines, according to calculations by an irate Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. In written preliminaries for hearings before the National Energy Board that promise to be long and hot after they start Feb. 19, CAPP calls TransCanada’s financial requests “grossly excessive.” Other protesters, while more diplomatic, are also firm — including Mirant Canada Energy Marketing Ltd.

A federal judge in Washington, DC, has ordered Interior Secretary Gale Norton to face a civil contempt trial for failure to comply with court orders to clean up the alleged mismanagement of royalty monies held and overseen by the agency in the Indian Trust Fund.

A federal judge has ordered Interior Secretary Gale Norton to face a civil contempt trial next week for failure to comply with court orders to clean up the alleged mismanagement of royalty monies held and overseen by the agency in the Indian Trust Fund.

The Department of Transportation (DOT) last week announced it was seeking a fine of $2.52 million against El Paso Natural Gas for several “probable violations” that potentially contributed to the fatal explosion on its pipeline system in New Mexico last August, which resulted in 12 deaths. It was said to be the “largest civil penalty” ever sought against a pipeline operator for federal safety violations.