Finish

Opening near its daily high and closing just off its low, themarket took on the trajectory of a safe pushed out a 10-storybuilding Friday, as traders pressured prices to their lowest levelsince April 12. The June contract was hardest hit late in thesession, when a wave of sell-stops exacerbated the price slide. Theprompt month closed down 8.2 cents at $3.025.

In what may turn out to be a Pyrrhic victory, bulls weresuccessful on two fronts Friday — testing resistance at $3.00 andposting a gain for the third straight session. However, thoseachievements may have come at a price because even dyed in the woolbulls were shaking their heads after watching heavy selling enterthe market once prices reached over the $3.00 mark.

Relieving technically overbought conditions and following thelead of weaker mid-morning cash prices, traders ushered natural gasfutures off its morning highs yesterday to notch its first down daysince Wednesday, Feb. 23. The April contract lost 3.2 cents at$2.783.

Last week was busy for MidAmerican Energy Holdings, as it movedcloser to completing its sale to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. while alsoannouncing intentions to step up efforts in Illinois’ retail energymarket. Once the merger is finalized, the parent of a utilityserving 653,000 electric customers and 622,000 gas customers inIowa and Illinois will become a privately-held company.

Fresh from a gargantuan six-day, 72-cent price retreat, thenatural gas futures market regained its composure Friday, asscale-down buyers took advantage of lower prices, and new shortscovered positions into the holiday weekend. The October contractclosed up 9 cents at $2.561 in an abbreviated pre-holiday session.

Adding to late session advances made in both regular and Accesstrading sessions Tuesday, natural gas futures pressed higheryesterday morning as local traders bid the market to fresh highs.However, once above the $3.10 level, the buying dried up openingthe opportunity for an aggressive sell-off that ushered the promptmonth lower in the afternoon. The September contract slipped 2.9cents to $3.03 after notching a $2.995 low.

ScottishPower PLC and PacifiCorp announced they have brokered asettlement in principle with the staff of the Oregon Public UtilityCommission (OPUC) that essentially clears the way for the firstacquisition by a foreign company of a U.S. power utility.

ScottishPower PLC and PacifiCorp announced they have brokered asettlement in principle with the staff of the Oregon Public UtilityCommission (OPUC) that essentially clears the way for the firstacquisition by a foreign company of a U.S. power utility.

Unocal Corp.’s Spirit Energy 76 unit completed the previouslyannounced trade of most of its Rocky Mountain oil and gas assets toTom Brown Inc (See Daily GPI March 11,1999). Unocal received 5.8 million shares of Tom Brown commonstock (about 16.5%) and $5 million for the properties. The deal isworth about $76 million. Subject to certain restrictions andconditions, Unocal has the option to increase its stock ownership upto 19.5% through open market purchases. The sale agreement alsoentitles Unocal to nominate one director to the Tom Brown board.