Head

Coral Energy jumped head first into a new arena last Friday withits purchase of 2.8 Bcf of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fromMalaysia LNG Sdn. Bhd. The shipment will be delivered to CMS’ LakeCharles, LA, LNG import facility later this month. Terms of thetransaction were not released.

Coral Energy jumped head first into a new arena last Friday withits 2.8 Bcf purchase of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from MalaysiaLNG Sdn. Bhd. The shipment will be delivered to CMS’ Lake Charles,LA, LNG import facility later this month. Terms of the transactionwere not released.

Daniel L. Larcamp was appointed director of the Office ofMarkets, Tariffs and Rates at the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission (FERC). The office and position were created as part ofinternal restructuring at the Commission under the FERC Firstprogram. Larcamp has served as senior counsel and policy advisor toFERC Chairman James. J. Hoecker on electric power issues sinceAugust.

Daniel L. Larcamp was appointed director of the Office ofMarkets, Tariffs and Rates at the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission (FERC). The office and position were created as part ofinternal restructuring at the Commission under the FERC Firstprogram.

After an early attempt to take out prior highs was rebuffedyesterday, natural gas futures trickled down to easily establish anew low for the week at $2.19. Bears were egged on by a number offactors, which include a rapidly deteriorating technical pictureand expected weekend physical demand fall-off, sources agreed. TheJune contract finished at $2.218, down 3.6 cents for the day.

Canada’s Yukon Territory aims to start a new Klondike rush -this time for natural gas, and oil too if there is any, in Canada’svast northwestern corner next to Alaska.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

The futures market gave an early “head fake” — pointing lowerat the open — but support held and the market picked up momentumthroughout the trading session Monday. The December contract spikeddramatically higher near the close, registering a 11.2 cent advanceto $2.387. Despite the large trading range, volume was a little onthe light side with only 50,263 contracts changing hands.

The futures market again came under selling pressure onWednesday as traders embraced the possibility Hurricane Georgeswould not be a threat to natural gas concerns in the Gulf ofMexico. The October contract was able to post an optimistic open at$2.23 before profit taking led the contract to settle at $2.131, a5.5 cent loss for the day.