Filled

In a week filled with earnings news and the announced departure of its CEO (see Daily GPI, Oct. 27), EnCana Corp. on Thursday said it has reached an agreement with some of its affiliates to sell substantially all of its natural gas liquids (NGL) business to Provident Energy Trust for $586 million (C$697 million). The sale is expected to close by the end of the year.

With Passover beginning Tuesday and Good Friday acting as a book-end, claims that this week could be “quiet” held true Monday as the natural gas futures May contract tested the $5.9 level early, but used the rest of the session to meander downward, closing at $5.804, less than a cent lower than Friday’s close.

Based on current economics, the growing North American natural gas supply gap will be filled by liquefied natural gas (LNG), a western Canadian energy commodity researcher, Chris Theal, told the opening session of a two-day “Pacific Coast LNG Development” conference Wednesday in Long Beach, CA.

Dynegy Inc. last week began climbing out of its deep debt-filled hole, launching a major junk bond refinancing project as well as a stock restructuring deal to pay off a credit line with ChevronTexaco Inc., its largest shareholder. If the transactions are completed as envisioned, Dynegy’s debt maturities would be “significantly” reduced over the next few years, including a portion of its recently restructured $1.66 billion credit facility and the secured financing of its Midwest generation assets.

Like the snowfall piling up in New England, long positions filled the natural gas pit on Thursday as bulls received yet another double-dose of supportive news in the form of fresh weather and storage (162 Bcf withdrawal) reports. By 11 a.m EST the January contract had blasted through the $5.00 mark. With sellers backing away, the prompt contract was able to continue higher in the afternoon to top out at a new 19-month continuation chart high at $5.15. January finished at $5.089, up 38 cents for the session.

The aid from energy companies came in all shapes and forms: from the millions of dollars donated by major oil companies to office space, oil-filled tanker trucks, respirators, boots, gloves, flashlights and cell phones, in response to the national emergency created by the massive terrorist attacks on the United States last Tuesday.

The aid from energy companies came in all shapes and forms: from the millions of dollars donated by major oil companies to office space, oil-filled tanker trucks, respirators, boots, gloves, flashlights and cell phones, in response to the national emergency created by the massive terrorist attacks on the United States last Tuesday.

In a packed courtroom filled with anxious creditors, a federal bankruptcy judge gave the Pacific Gas & Electric utility the authority Tuesday to make payments to customers and suppliers of both gas and electricity, and set a hearing for April 18 on the utility’s request for an injunction against state regulators’ orders for accounting changes related to past electricity stranded cost collections of billions of dollars.

A funny thing happened on the way to the FERC: prospectiveshipper Duke Energy defected, but Dynegy quickly filled in the gapas the proposed new long-haul Independence and Supplylink pipelineprojects re-formed their ranks and marched toward this week’s openmeeting.