Friday

Dynegy Canada Inc., a subsidiary of Houston-based Dynegy Inc.,announced Friday it has acquired the midstream gas processingfacilities and gathering lines of Compton Petroleum Corp. for anestimated $39 million.

All the gas flowing to the Florida peninsula was cut off overthe weekend after a lightning strike Friday afternoon caused a fireand pipe rupture at Florida Gas Transmission’s Station 15 nearPerry, FL, and knocked out all downstream service. The 24-inch,30-inch and 36-inch mainlines that converge in the station yardwere affected.

FERC has announced plans to meet on Friday with Midwest stateutility commissioners and officials with the National Associationof Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) to discuss the pricingturmoil that hit the Midwest electricity markets in the last weekof June.

Senate Energy Committee Chairman Frank Murkowski (R-AK) onFriday asked President Clinton to delay swearing in Bill Richardsonto head the Department of Energy until the committee has had anopportunity to review allegations that he may have lied during hisconfirmation hearing about a job offer that was made to MonicaLewinsky.

Natural gas futures looked poised to continue to trend lowerlast Friday amid abundant physical supply and having justreestablished the downtrend that began on April 8th. However,weather forecasts calling for the warmest temperatures of thesummer and solid “bargain buying” in the cash market was enough tolift August 3.3 cents to settle at $2.165.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order lateFriday authorizing the California ISO on an interim basis to”reject bids in excess of whatever price levels it believes areappropriate for Regulation, Spinning Reserve, Non-Spinning Reserveand Replacement Reserve. The price levels could be based on costs,market or any factor the ISO determines will attract sufficientbids into the markets.”

The July Nymex contract went off the board in wild fashionFriday, as the spot month reached a high of $2.45 before plummetingto a low of $2.33 just before the closing bell. Despite thevolatility, July’s final $2.358 settlement price left the contractdown just 0.6 cents for the day.

As of last Friday, 35 days away from the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission’s August recess and counting….there wasstill no official sign of its promised plan to cure the gas marketof its ills. But rumors abounded that the alleged “gas options”paper has been circulated to pipelines and producers and isundergoing a variety of alterations. There also was one report thatthe plan might not, after all, see daylight until after the recess.

In one of its speediest confirmations ever on Capitol Hill, theSenate on Friday approved by unanimous consent the re-appointmentof Commissioner William L. Massey to a second five-year term on theFederal Energy Regulatory Commission.