Fourth

In joint releases Friday morning, Canadian heavyweights PanCanadian Energy Corp. and Alberta Energy Co.(AEC) — the fourth and fifth largest energy companies in the country — announced they are talking about a possible merger. If completed, the company would become one of the largest natural gas producers in North America. Based on Thursday’s closing on the Toronto Stock Exchange, the companies had a market value of C$19.4 billion ($12.1 billion).

Lower gas and electric sales, the second warmest fourth quarter weather in more than 100 years, and plant maintenance costs squashed CMS Energy Corp.’s 2001 overall earnings, and the Dearborn, MI-based company now expects to earn between $1.35-$1.40 for the year — 35 cents below its estimates.

Lower gas and electric sales, the second warmest fourth quarter weather in more than 100 years, and plant maintenance costs squashed CMS Energy Corp.’s 2001 overall earnings, and the Dearborn, MI-based company now expects to earn between $1.35-$1.40 for the year — 35 cents below its estimates.

Florida Gas Transmission kept an Overage Alert Day notice in effect for its fourth day through at least Friday and tightened the tolerance for negative daily imbalances from 15% back to 10% again.

Conoco Inc., the fourth largest U.S. energy company and USX-Marathon Group, the sixth largest, bumped up their second quarter profits and met or exceeded analysts’ projections, mostly because of higher energy prices during the period. Houston-based Conoco, which acquired Calgary’s Gulf Canada Resources Ltd. in the quarter, saw earnings rise almost 32%, while its cross-town neighbor USX-Marathon, the energy business of USX Corp., exceeded expectations, with income up 59%.

After thrice rebounding off stubborn support during the course of the past three weeks, natural gas futures finally broke beneath the $3.00-05 area yesterday as bears pressured the market lower with confidence that comes from having been there before. A gap lower open set tone of the trading session and bulls would never recover, watching almost helplessly as both August and September dropped to new 14-months lows and closed below $3.00. August finished at $2.939, down 14.8 cents and September more than kept pace, closing down 16.1 cents at $2.985.

DTE Energy Co. clarified its 2001 earnings predictions on Friday to include restructuring impacts and goodwill amortization related to its recently completed merger with MCN Energy Group, saying it expected “significant variations in quarterly earnings” because of the suspension of fuel and purchased-power cost recovery as part of Michigan’s restructuring legislation in 2000, but expected earnings to remain on track.

The July Fourth holiday only delayed by a day the inevitable whiplash that gas futures typically cause on Wednesdays. Thursday opened with bang as August futures gapped about 8 cents higher at the opening bell, but the contract proceeded to do a nosedive in anticipation of another large storage refill. When the American Gas Association reported the ninth 100+ Bcf storage injection in 10 weeks (105 Bcf), futures plummeted to a new low of $3.040. However, the contract encountered surprising support there and managed to rebound to $3.136, down only 6.5 cents for the day.

Florida Gas Transmission did not extend Tuesday’s Overage Alert Day notice into the Fourth of July holiday.