Within an hour of announcing the consummation of a Mitsubishi-ConocoPhillips partnership last week to build a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the Port of Long Beach, CA, the backers received some support — albeit qualified — from a leading environmental/renewable energy advocate in California.
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CA Environmental Advocate Agrees LNG Needed, But With More Balance
Within an hour of announcing the consummation of a Mitsubishi-ConocoPhillips partnership Tuesday to build a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminal in the Port of Long Beach, CA, the backers received some support — albeit qualified — from a leading environmental/renewable energy advocate in California.
Futures Test $5 Mark as September Expires
After trading within the $5.12-5.18 range for a majority of the day, September natural gas futures used the final half hour of the regular trading session to make another run at the psychological $5 mark before expiration.
PG&E Utility-Consumer Group Agree on Revised Bankruptcy Plan
In an eleventh-hour move designed to fashion a three-vote majority on the stalemated California Public Utilities Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and a leading utility consumer group, TURN, late Monday filed a revised plan for bringing the utility out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy with an investment-grade credit rating.
Reliant Ensures Liquidity, Credit Rating Upgraded
At literally the eleventh hour, Reliant Resources Inc. (RRI) last week successfully completed a $6.2 billion financing package to refinance $5.9 billion of existing bank credit facilities with new ones that won’t mature until 2007. The lenders also provided the cash-poor company a $300 million line of credit, which matures in 2004.
Futures Finish Strongly as Short-Covering Overcomes Bearish Short-term Outlook
After tumbling lower during the first hour of trading, natural gas futures rebounded late Friday morning as traders covered shorts in an effort to minimize their exposure should a bullish development — either geopolitical or weather related — emerge over the long holiday weekend. In an abbreviated session cut short at 1 p.m. EST ahead of the Monday holiday, the March contract closed at $5.851, up 11.1 cents on the day, but down 19.2 cents for the week. Futures will reopen Monday at 7 p.m in Access trading with regular open-outcry trading set to resume at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
Late Selling Trims Profits, But Not Before Another Running of the Bulls
After opening unchanged and checking sideways for the first hour of trading Friday, natural gas futures rocketed higher between 11 a.m and 12:40 p.m. EST as sellers backed away from the market and buyers became more aggressive.
PG&E Merchant Unit Gets Lender Reprieve for New Power Plants
PG&E Corp.’s struggling National Energy Group (NEG) won an eleventh-hour, very short-term reprieve with a lenders’ syndicate Monday that will allow for the continued construction of new merchant electric generating plants in Arizona, Michigan and New York, all of which have had a pall cast over them for the past three months as NEG and its parent struggle to reorder the unit’s balance sheet through still undecided asset sales, reorganization and refinancings. The agreement is good through Nov. 14, after which lenders need to come up with a longer term solution.
TXU Will Draw on Unsecured Bank Facilities to Increase Cash by $2.6B
With three hour-plus conference calls over four business days, TXU Corp.’s management team offered assurances that the corporation was liquid and strong. The losses, they kept reminding analysts and investors, were only within its European affiliates. By the end of the week, the Dallas-based corporation appeared to have calmed jittery investors, as management made clear that TXU Europe Ltd. and its entities will always be secondary to the success of the U.S. business.
Enron’s Lay Asks Senate Panel Not to Draw ‘Negative Inference’
After being scolded by lawmakers for more than a hour for not testifying Tuesday before a Senate panel, former Enron Chairman Kenneth L. Lay urged the senators to “not draw a negative inference” from his decision to assert his constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination.