Fought

Barring an unforeseen loss of equipment, the Northeast — having recently fought off broiling temperatures and soaring demands for electricity — should be able to successfully make it through the rest of this summer, according to Tim Gallagher, manager of technical services at the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC).

The Republican majority of the House Resources Committee yesterday fought off two attempts by Democratic members to remove from energy legislation a controversial provision that would open the coastal region of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gas drilling.

After careening almost $1.50 lower early last week, bulls atNymex fought back Thursday and Friday as traders glommed on to somemodestly constructive technical and fundamental factors. When allthe dust had cleared and the orders were tabulated, the numbersspeak for themselves. The February contract lost 13% of its value,tumbling 96.3 cents lower, to go off the board at $6.293 Monday.After following in February’s footsteps Tuesday and Wednesday, thenew prompt month, March, erupted $1.036 higher to close the week at$6.743.

Despite a lower open and crumbling cash market values, naturalgas bulls fought their way higher on Friday as February pricesmoved above a key momentum number on technician’s charts. TheFebruary contract spent most of day trimming losses incurred duringthe overnight Access session, which paved the way for a lateshort-covering rally. The prompt month finished the day at $7.256,down 1.4 cents for the session but well above its $7.10 openingmark.

Except in the Northeast, cash price averages showed littlemovement yesterday as strong demand fought bearish weather to astandstill. Despite the lack of “real winter weather,” as onesource put it, the cash market’s recent resiliency had many tradersdisplaying quiet confidence about the market’s chances to maintainits bullish trend heading into the weekend.

Only two-years after winning its hard-fought battle to acquire Portland General Electric, Enron Corp. President Jeffrey K. Skilling last week said the company is considering “alternatives” for the electric utility.

Western Resources Inc. and Kansas City Power and Light (KCPL) -could be reaching the end of their long-fought merger battle as theKansas Corporation Commission (KCC) approved the merger with someconditions.

Spurred on by strong operations that fought through an arduousfourth quarter, Duke Energy posted a 36% increase in annualearnings to $3.41 per share in 1998 from $2.51 per share in 1997,the company announced Wednesday. Duke’s revenues increased to $17.6billion compared to $16.3 billion in 1997. Earnings before interestand taxes (EBIT) rose $540 million from the previous year, reaching$2.65 billion.

FERC yesterday gave its blessing to a hard-fought fundingsettlement that provides the road map for the Gas ResearchInstitute to begin its seven-year journey to become avoluntarily-funded organization.