Falls

No news would be good news for Enron Corp., but that wasn’t the case again on Tuesday, as its stock fell to lows not seen in about a decade. Although in better times being named the most actively traded stock would be a bonus, Enron probably would have liked to have heard otherwise, and by the time the New York Stock Exchange had closed, more than 20 million shares had changed hands to close at $9.67.

Enron Corp.’s stock lost another 20.8% on Tuesday in late trading on the New York Stock Exchange, pushing the Houston-based energy trader to its lowest level since 1992. The stock lost $2.86 from Monday’s close, finally ending at $10.95 in the10th straight day of losses. The last time Enron traded below $11 was in July 1992, when it was mostly a pipeline company and a long way from being the largest energy trader in the world.

The latest U.S. rig count fell by 27 to stand at 1,168 in the first week of October, but still remained higher than the same period a year ago, when there were 1,035 rigs operating, according to Houston-based Baker Hughes, reporting for the week ending Oct. 5. In Canada, the number of rigs exploring for oil and gas was up 12 to stand at 316, but lower than last year’s 356 for the same period.

Prices emerged from the weekend to resume the slide that dominated much of last week’s market. Only the California border-SoCalGas managed to show a gain for the day as a terribly weak screen, continued lack of fundamental support and expectations of another big storage injection report this week combined to push nearly all points down between 10 and 20 cents Monday.

While the Southern California border stepped up its headlongrush to rejoin the overall gas market and the other two Californiapoints saw big losses, all other points experienced only mildsoftness Wednesday. Only Texas Eastern-Kosciusko and two Northeastpoints (into Algonquin and Iroquois Zone 2) fell more than a dimeamong the non-California markets.

An advocate of stiff pipeline safety laws, Rep. James L.Oberstar (D-MN) last week said he was “generally supportive” of therecent move by the Department of Transportation’s Office ofPipeline Safety’s (OPS) to toughen the requirements for safetyinspections of large hazardous liquid pipelines. But he believesPresident Clinton’s decree to the agency to beef up the safetystandards for small liquid and natural gas pipelines came up short.

An advocate of stiff pipeline safety laws, Rep. James L.Oberstar (D-MN) said he was “generally supportive” of the recentmove by the Department of Transportation’s Office of PipelineSafety’s (OPS) to toughen the requirements for safety inspectionsof large hazardous liquid pipelines. But he believes PresidentClinton’s decree to the agency to beef up the safety standards forsmall liquid and natural gas pipelines came up short.

NorthWestern Corp., a $5 billion diversified services and solutions company based in Sioux Falls, SD, announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Montana Power Co.’s energy distribution and transmission business for approximately $1.1 billion in cash, including approximately $488 million in existing Montana Power debt.

Spurred by constructive over-the-counter dealings, along with alittle apprehension ahead of today’s release of fresh storage data,the July contract gapped higher at the open yesterday en route toan unprecedented 15th advance in 16 trading sessions. After makinga “head fake” lower about mid-morning Tuesday, the July contractrumbled 8.6 cents higher to finish at $4.354.