Heads

William F. Hederman Jr., a former executive of Columbia Gas Transmission and energy consultant, has been named the first director of FERC’s new Office of Market Oversight and Investigations.

Reps. Ray LaHood (R-IL) and John Shimkus (R-IL) have asked the heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take a closer look at the operations of AES Corp., which has seen its share price plummet as investors grow increasingly nervous about the company’s ability to handle, among other things, its large debt load. In the case of the SEC, the congressmen want that agency to review the activities of AES to see if federal securities laws may have been violated.

Dynegy Corp. executives have to be scratching their heads at what it’s going to take to restore investor confidence. The Houston-based energy trader by all accounts had a stellar week: a bold restructuring plan to shed non-core assets, sale of 25 million shares of its stock, winning the first legal round in battle with Enron Corp., and an expanded multi-year natural gas marketing agreement with ChevronTexaco.

Many observers have been scratching their heads lately over the inability of the futures and cash markets to show significant declines despite overwhelming fundamental reasons to do so. There’s been very little cold weather to speak of this heating season and gas storage levels are at record highs with 37% more gas in storage than at the same time last year, yet January gas futures remained in the mid $2.60s on Tuesday, down only 2.9 cents on the day to $2.657.

The post-holiday market had a little something for everybody’s tastes Monday. Like big upticks? Go west, young man (or woman). Prefer more moderate but still sizeable gains? The Midcontinent was the place to be. How about you ambivalent types that like to mix it up? The Gulf Coast and Midwest citygates were the regions to trade, although losses outweighed the gains. And for the pure bears out there, it didn’t get any more price-negative than in the Northeast.

As most investors and analysts continue to scratch their respective heads in search of evidence as to why the country’s natural gas storage facilities are continuing to fill at an exceptionally fast pace over the past three months despite falling prices, Fred Schultz, of Raymond James & Associates, thinks the answer might lie in an overlooked indicator, namely nuclear power.

California regulators may be scratching their heads about what to do with gas purchasing incentives for the state’s major utilities following Southern California Gas Co.’s filing that claims its purchases over a 12-month period ending last June were $223 million below market prices.

As most investors and analysts continue to scratch their respective heads in search of evidence as to why the country’s natural gas storage facilities continued to fill at an exceptionally fast pace over the past three months with prices falling, Fred Schultz, of Raymond James & Associates, thinks the answer might lie in an overlooked indicator, namely nuclear power.

In a stunning show of bearishness that had even the most seasoned traders shaking their heads, natural gas futures continued lower Friday as sellers demoted prices to new 13-month lows. A gap lower opening set the tone of the session, and bulls were never able to recover. The August contract spent most of the day trading near its $3.055 low, closing 18.4 cents weaker at $3.096.