Jumping

April natural gas futures managed to score the largest gain since late January on Tuesday by jumping 21.8 cents to settle at $7.472 in active trading. The gain was the largest the April contract had made since Jan. 30 when it soared 68.3 cents to settle at $7.695.

Hefty litigation costs and accounting adjustments pushed Williams Cos. to a loss in the second quarter. However, with natural gas production jumping 20% from a year ago to 786 MMcf/d and a strong performance from its midstream business, the Tulsa-based gas producer and distributor raised its profit and capital expenditure guidance through 2008.

Hefty litigation costs and accounting adjustments pushed Williams Cos. to a loss in the second quarter. However, with natural gas production jumping 20% from a year ago to 786 MMcf/d and a strong performance from its midstream business, the Tulsa-based gas producer and distributor raised its profit and capital expenditure guidance through 2008.

Despite revenues jumping by nearly half a billion dollars, PG&E Corp. Wednesday reported that earnings in the first quarter were essentially flat compared to the same period last year. On a nonGAAP accounting basis, first quarter earnings were $214 million, or 60 cents/ share, compared to $218 million, or 56 cents/share, for the same period in 2005. Total revenue was $3.1 billion, compared to $2.66 billion in the first quarter a year earlier.

Cash prices staged a solid rally Monday, jumping 10-75 cents in response to the return of colder weather in major midwestern, Midcontinent and northeastern markets and to a spike in futures prices.

Crude oil futures continued their recent record-setting ways Tuesday, jumping more than a dollar to $51.09/bbl — the first daily settlement ever above $51. And although some natural gas traders may have felt it was akin to comparing apples with oranges, gas in both its physical and Nymex forms tried to emulate petroleum’s strength as best it could.

Jumping up almost 46% from 2002, Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton announced Tuesday that 36 states received more than $1 billion during 2003 as part of their share of royalty revenues collected by the Department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS). In 2002, the MMS doled out $753 million.

Jumping into the rush to expand the Rocky Mountain region’s natural gas infrastructure, Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) and BP America Inc. have signed a 12-year agreement to expand gathering and processing infrastructure and services to accommodate BP’s Greater Green River Basin drilling program in Wamsutter, WY.

Jumping into the rush to expand the Rocky Mountain region’s natural gas infrastructure, Duke Energy Field Services (DEFS) and BP America Inc. have signed a 12-year agreement to expand gathering and processing infrastructure and services to accommodate BP’s Greater Green River Basin drilling program in Wamsutter, WY.