Keeps

Portland, OR-based Northwest Natural Gas Co. (NNG) Monday is keeping its 2002 earning estimates at the $1.90 to $2.05/share level, attributing a lot of the good news to an approved settlement it reached earlier with the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (PUC). These estimates take into consideration a one-time, second quarter charge of 32 cents/share for NNG’s failed bid to buy neighboring utility Portland General Electric (PGE) from bankruptcy-mired Enron Corp.

San Diego-based Sempra Energy indicated Monday it was not surprised by a downgrade from Moody’s Investors Service for it and one of its two major utilities, San Diego Gas and Electric Co. Sempra pointed out that Moody’s maintained the “stable” outlook and an investment-grade level rating, and the company attributed the action to the general energy sector’s troubles, rather than weaknesses in its businesses or strategies.

Depending on how you look at it, there was good news and bad news for Aquila Inc. last week. Moody’s Investors Service and Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Ratings Services both cut the Kansas City-based company’s credit rating, with Moody’s dropping it to “junk” status. However, S&P kept its investment-grade rating, which may ease credit concerns in the near term.

Very hot weather along the East Coast and in the South and much of the West kept prices moving higher at nearly all points Tuesday. Transco Zone 6-NYC soared again, this time by 80 cents, and peaked at $6.

Air conditioners are humming virtually everywhere, and that translated into continuing bullishness for almost the entire cash gas market Wednesday. Except for a small decline at Malin and flat to barely higher numbers at a few Northeast citygates, other points saw gains that tended to range from a nickel to a little more than 15 cents.

Air conditioners are humming virtually everywhere, and that translated into continuing bullishness for almost the entire cash gas market Wednesday. Except for a small decline at Malin and flat to barely higher numbers at a few Northeast citygates, other points saw gains that tended to range from a nickel to a little more than 15 cents.

With FERC-ordered mitigation measures on wholesale power prices in the western part of the country set to expire later this year, Commission Chairman Pat Wood on Thursday disclosed that he’s traveling to California this week to, among other things, receive assurances that the region’s market rules and infrastructure are on enough of a solid footing that those caps can be lifted when they expire at the end of September.

After spending precious little time in the $1.80s Monday, February natural gas futures bubbled higher on expiration day yesterday as a late round of local short-covering boosted prices back above the $2.00 mark. By virtue of its 9.8-cent gain and $2.006 final settlement price, the February contract managed to avoid last October’s fate of a sub-$2.00 closing price. Volume was normal for an expiration day with 129,016 contracts changing hands.

With the blustery days of winter not all that far off, FERC chairman Pat Wood last Friday made it clear that he will keep a watchful eye on how energy markets in the Pacific Northwest progress over the coming months, since that part of the country has a winter peaking system bolstered by hydro-electric power and has seen precipitation fall off dramatically.