Increasing

San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp.’s “bad hair day” turned into an even worse week, and the question now is how badly the high-flying merchant power plant developer will be hurt by a growing wave of skepticism on Wall Street on the soundness of its strategy, financial ability and future earnings.

Despite falling gas prices, declining demand and increasing production, the rush is still on to bring more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the United States. Two El Paso Corp. subsidiaries are conducting separate open seasons to determine non-binding customer interest in transportation capacity on pipelines that will transport natural gas from El Paso Global LNG’s planned LNG terminal on Grand Bahama Island to Florida.

The cash market came to a near-standstill at mid-morning Tuesday as a result of the terrorist attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and other sites (see related story). Virtually all trading operations sent employees home early, while pipelines and utilities kept only those personnel essential for critical operations on duty.

Dynegy Inc. said Tuesday it has expanded its e-commerce site, Dynegydirect.com, into the United Kingdom energy market, reflecting the “increasing demand for Dynegy’s products in Europe as well as the successful launch…in North America last year,” said Gary Cardone, president of Dynegy Europe Ltd.

Controversy, fueled by increasing political tensions, heated up last week about a group of private sector consultants brought on the state payroll by Gov. Gray Davis in the past six months to help California wrestle with its electricity problems, including the state’s role in buying bulk wholesale power.

High natural gas prices in the United States have energized spot trading in LNG shipments, with over half the cargoes received in the U.S. recently coming from spot sales, BP’s regional manager for the Americas and the Atlantic Basin said last week.

Under increasing pressure from Congress, FERC last week agreed to hold a public conference later this month to address the state of “current and projected” interstate gas pipeline capacity to the California market, as well as explore what is driving the higher gas prices in the southern end of the state.

The likelihood of friction between state and federal regulators increasing over deregulation plans if states slow or walk away from retail competition is just one of several important implications resulting from the ongoing shockwave that has rolled through the Western energy markets, according to a new report issued Tuesday by Andersen.

In a race to produce increasing amounts of natural gas to keep up with the nation’s growing demand, Anadarko Petroleum Corp. reported last Tuesday that it is continuing its work to find and produce new gas reserves from oil fields. The company announced its Fife Unit #2 well in Central Texas, which just came online, is producing natural gas at a rate of 51 MMcf/d.