Implications

While the stock market is concerned about the short-term implications for lower earnings, the joint venture of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s successful energy-metals trading business with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) offers plenty to like in the long term, according to Michael Heim, an analyst with A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc., who follows Sempra. He still sees Sempra stock as valued in the $67/share to $70/share range.

Despite the “potential negative implications” from recent court decisions that impact its coalbed methane (CBM) production volumes in Montana, MDU Resources Group Inc. said Thursday that it is reaffirming its 2005 earnings guidance to a range of between $1.80-2.00/share.

Looking into the crystal ball of what implications LNG will have on conventional domestic gas sources, Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins said it will depend on how much of the new gas is brought in, on what timeframe it arrives and how much it will cost.

Aside from tax implications of its merchant unit’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, PG&E Corp.’s CEO Robert Glynn Wednesday stressed for a Wall Street audience the substantial cash flow and shareholder value of his utility’s proposed omnibus settlement with the California Public Utilities Commission. Glynn spoke Wednesday as part of the second day of the three-day Lehman Brothers Energy/Power Conference in New York City.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Rating Services placed the credit rating of Southern Union Co. on CreditWatch with “negative implications” after the distribution company announced in late December that it and AIG HighStar Capital LP had reached a definitive deal to buy CMS Energy’s Panhandle natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities for an estimated $1.83 billion.

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Rating Services placed the credit rating of Southern Union Co. on CreditWatch with “negative implications” Monday after the distribution company announced that it and AIG HighStar Capital LP had reached a definitive deal to buy CMS Energy’s Panhandle natural gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities for an estimated $1.83 billion.

Iroquois Pipeline, having reached a critical point in development of its Eastern Long Island (ELI) expansion project, has asked FERC to defer further action on its application until at least January when Iroquois will provide a status update.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line apparently could not stomach the rate implications of FERC’s recent order approving the $60 million Cross Bay Pipeline. The company, along with partners Duke and KeySpan, told the Commission the project is being canceled because of the rate changes proposed in the order and the lack of market interest.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line apparently could not stomach the rate implications of FERC’s recent order approving the $60 million Cross Bay Pipeline, which would have provided 125,000 Dth/d of incremental firm gas transportation into the New York City marketplace using a portion of Transco’s pipeline system along with new compression. Transco informed the Commission on Friday that project sponsors Williams, Duke and KeySpan will not be going through with the pipeline because of the rate changes proposed on Transco as a result of FERC’s order on Cross Bay and because the project still has no market agreements in place.