Hedge

Encana Corp. CEO Randy Eresman, whose company is one of the largest onshore producers in North America, said Wednesday the company remains “cautiously optimistic about our natural gas price recovery this year. We continue to see evidence on both the demand and supply front that supports this assertion.”

Frisco, TX-based Comstock Resources Inc. has joined the ranks of producers that are pulling back from natural gas drilling to direct more resources to oil.

Centaurus Energy Master Fund LP, a Houston-based energy hedge fund that was founded by John D. Arnold after the collapse of Enron Corp., was fined $75,000 by the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) for violating position limits in natural gas trading.

A U.S. District Court judge has approved a $77.1 million settlement to resolve claims against Amaranth Advisors LLC, a hedge fund that collapsed in September 2006 after suffering $6 billion in market losses due to wrong-headed bets in natural gas futures.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) entered into separate settlements requiring failed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC and affiliates to pay a total of $7.5 million in penalties to settle two-year-old claims that they manipulated or attempted to manipulate natural gas futures prices.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) entered into separate settlements requiring failed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC and affiliates to pay a total of $7.5 million in penalties to settle two-year-old claims that they manipulated or attempted to manipulate natural gas futures prices.

Collapsed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC, seven affiliates and former trader Matthew Donohoe Thursday submitted a joint offer of settlement to FERC to resolve all claims that they manipulated the market to influence natural gas futures prices.

Collapsed hedge fund Amaranth Advisors LLC, seven affiliates and former trader Matthew Donohoe last Thursday submitted a joint offer of settlement to FERC to resolve all claims that they manipulated the market to influence natural gas futures prices.

Southern Union Co. and hedge fund Sandell Asset Management Corp. last week struck an agreement that tables the sale of local distribution company (LDC) assets by Southern Union as well as the formation of a master limited partnership (MLP). Sandell, through affiliates, owns 8.6% of Southern Union and had been pressuring the company to bolster shareholder returns since late 2006.