Goes

Koch Energy Trading’s new web site KochEnergy.com went live yesterday, offering awide range of features and in-depth information to select Kochcustomers.

A basis blowout of immense proportions has occurred between Rocky Mountain region supply basins and the Southern California border this month and it appears to be expanding as we enter August, leading to widespread speculation and controversy in the industry about its causes.

Market-power abuse in the electric industry often goes “unnoticed” by FERC because enforcement of the rules under Order 888, which are “frequently opaque,” is mostly left up to the transmission owners themselves, according to consulting firm Tabors Caramanis & Associates in Cambridge, MA.

Market-power abuse in the electric industry often goes”unnoticed” by FERC because enforcement of the rules under Order888, which are “frequently opaque,” is mostly left up to thetransmission owners themselves, according to consulting firm TaborsCaramanis & Associates in Cambridge, MA.

What goes up, must come down,” was one trader’s description ofyesterday’s late sell-off in the natural gas pit at Nymex. However,a more appropriate expression might have been “what can’t keepgoing up, must come down,” because after pressing through stubbornresistance at $3.20 Monday morning, the June contract hadlanguished on either side of $3.20 for two days, unable to attractmuch in the way of follow-through buying. That range-bound tradingcame to an abrupt end Wednesday when fresh storage data wasreleased. The June contact finished down 9.1 cents at $3.126.

“Close, but no cigar” might as well have been the motto for thenatural gas futures market last week. It was a week in whichtraders pushed both May and June contracts to the limits of supportand resistance, only to have prices whip-saw back in their face. Bythe time all the dust had settled and the orders tabulated in thedata room at Nymex, the evidence was irrefutable. Natural gas isonce again stuck in a trading or consolidation range, bounded onone side by previous highs at $3.195 and on the other by a seriesof technical and fundamental hurdles between $2.90 and $3.00. TheMay contract went off the board in rather unspectacular fashionWednesday, settling at $3.089. Buoyed by heavy fund and localbuying Friday, the June contract retraced three straight days oflosses by closing up 8.6 cents at $3.141.

PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group continued its purge ofnon-profitable assets yesterday by announcing plans to sellPG&E Energy Services contracts to Enron Energy ServicesOperations Inc. (EES) for $85 million. The sale is subject to FERCand other regulatory reviews. It is expected to be completed by theclose of the second quarter this year.

Southwest Gas Corp. has sued Oneok, Inc. and Southern Union Co.following what it called “Oneok’s unjustified attempt to cancel themerger agreement between it and Southwest Gas.”

Thanks to an agreement announced yesterday with the softwaresolutions company Excelergy, Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas)will expand its energy e-commerce Web site, Energymarketplace.com,to all states that have customer choice programs. The site hadpreviously emphasized the West Coast. While SoCalGas will continueto sponsor the site, Excelergy has assumed development, marketingand sales responsibilities.