Greatly

San Diego-based Sempra Energy last week announced an agreement last Monday to acquire Mobile, AL-based EnergySouth for $510 million in cash, greatly expanding the western energy holding company’s storage infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the terms of the deal EnergySouth shareholders are to receive $61.50/share.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy announced an agreement Monday to acquire Mobile, AL-based EnergySouth for $510 million in cash, greatly expanding the western energy holding company’s storage infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico. Under the terms of the deal EnergySouth shareholders are to receive $61.50/share.

The market recorded double-digit losses across the board Monday as above-normal temperatures in many areas greatly reduced the strong heating load that had kept most points rising through Wednesday of last week. Cash numbers also had highly negative guidance from Friday’s 33.4-cent dive by March futures.

Most of the cash market continued to rise Wednesday, but by notably smaller amounts than the day before. With heat levels greatly increasing in much of the West, particularly in inland California, Rockies gas found enough cooling load to arrest its recent slide into sub-$1 averages and cause large rebounds.

The cash market began the week Monday greatly resembling the way it did in the preceding week — with substantive price gains at a large majority of points based on strong cold weather fundamentals across the East but with the Rockies taking steep dives due to generally weak western heating load, limited storage injection opportunities and regional transport constraints.

Although it is no longer in the natural gas business, power producer Dynegy Inc.’s 2005 earnings benefited greatly from the midstream enterprise it previously owned. Specifically, proceeds from its midstream asset sale turned what would have been a net income loss to a net gain.

Differing greatly from the AccuWeather.com forecast from a few days ago, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) winter outlook for December through February calls for warmer-than-normal temperatures across most of the U.S.

Citing “greatly improved” permit processing by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Western Gas Resources expects to grow its unconventional gas production by between 10-15% this year and 15-20% in 2006, company officials said in an earnings conference call last Thursday. While production, mainly from the Rockies area, was only up 5% in 2004 over 2003, net income increased 42% to a record $119.2 million.

Citing “greatly improved” permit processing by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Western Gas Resources expects to grow its unconventional gas production by between 10-15% this year and 15-20% in 2006, company officials said in an earnings conference call Thursday. While production, mainly from the Rockies area, was only up 5% in 2004 over 2003, net income increased 42% to a record $119.2 million.