Firms

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) is casting a wary eye on gas-weighted North American producers with low-speculative-grade ratings. Such firms could face downgrades if gas prices fall below $6.50/Mcf, S&P warned in a note Monday, but it conceded that gas prices should see support in the near term.

Despite some predictions of production declines in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings have committed $450 million for investment in a new oil and gas company that will focus on acquiring and developing producing properties in the Gulf.

Despite some predictions of production declines in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), private equity firms The Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings said Tuesday they have committed $450 million for investment in a new oil and gas company that will focus on acquiring and developing producing properties in the Gulf.

In the midst of a proposed merger with a consortium of private equity firms in which rates were deemed unaffected, Bellevue, WA-based Puget Sound Energy (PSE) last Monday filed a $231.3 million general rate case with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission. The primary reason cited for the filing was large infrastructure investments by PSE this year and last year that it needs to recover in future retail natural gas and electric utility rates.

Sticking to its earlier predictions, which are in line with a number of other forecasting firms, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday it still sees above-average temperatures this winter for most of the United States.

Fortifying the activities of one of the top natural gas marketing firms in North America with solid financial backing, American International Group Inc. subsidiary AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIG-FP) said Thursday that it has signed an agreement to purchase a 50% partnership interest in Tenaska Energy’s natural gas marketing companies — Tenaska Marketing Ventures, Tenaska Marketing Canada and Tenaska Gas Storage — known collectively as TMV. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Fortifying the activities of one of the top natural gas marketing firms in North America with solid financial backing, American International Group Inc. subsidiary AIG Financial Products Corp. (AIG-FP) said late last week that it has signed an agreement to purchase a 50% partnership interest in Tenaska Energy’s natural gas marketing companies — Tenaska Marketing Ventures, Tenaska Marketing Canada and Tenaska Gas Storage — known collectively as TMV. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Reflected again in the latest financial results, Sempra Energy has a growing “problem” of success in the energy commodity trading business that a lot of other firms would like to emulate, and its senior executives told financial analysts Friday they are constantly evaluating what to do with the business longer term, including taking on a partner that would expand it on a worldwide basis.

Enron did not control natural gas price indexes, nor was it common practice for firms to report their bias in submitting price information to publishing companies six years ago, according to testimony Wednesday from Kelley Doolan, price editor of Platts Inside FERC Gas Market Report, in the Houston trial of former gas traders Michelle Valencia and Greg Singleton.