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Second-quarter natural gas production fell only slightly — 0.7% — from the first quarter of 2002, according to a survey by Raymond James Energy, but the consulting firm is nevertheless predicting full-year results will be in line with its previous prediction of a minus 5-6%.

Less than three weeks after receiving a certificate for the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given Kern River Gas Transmission a green light to begin constructing some of its 2003 Expansion pipeline and compression facilities in Wyoming and Utah.

Less than three weeks after receiving a certificate for the project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given Kern River Gas Transmission a green light to begin constructing some of its 2003 Expansion pipeline and compression facilities in Wyoming and Utah.

Even though its energy trading venture turned in a less-than-stellar performance over the past few months, investors shouldn’t take that to mean Entergy Corp. is ready to join the growing list of power companies throwing in the towel on energy trading. When the dust finally settles from the current market upheaval, Entergy CEO Wayne Leonard sees the company’s trading operations as well positioned to take advantage of a “much deeper space” expected in the sector after the current shakeout.

Within less than 24 hours after Northwest Natural Gas and Enron Corp. decided to terminate their $2.98 billion stock/debt-assumption deal for the gas utility to buy bankruptcy-mired Enron’s Portland General Electric (PGE) subsidiary, Moody’s Investors Service Friday downgraded PGE and affirmed the gas company’s “stable rating.”

While the financial and political sectors are consumed with what last week’s revelations about wholesale power market manipulation will mean to the energy industry, California’s independent electric transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, is focused on the broader market power abuses as the potential malfunctions that have the broadest, longest lasting and most costly impact. Relatively, the market power costs are in the billions of dollars, while the market manipulation of the kind described in the infamous Enron internal memos (see Daily GPI, May 9) collectively costs maybe hundreds of millions, according to Cal-ISO sources.

Less than two weeks after being formed by a merger of AEC and PanCanadian, EnCana Corp. has embarked on a major expansion of its Rocky Mountain region producing assets by purchasing 500 Bcf of long-life natural gas and associated natural gas liquids reserves and about 338,000 net acres of land in northwestern Colorado from El Paso Corp. (see Daily GPI, April 5)

In less than a month Williams has completed the sale of its Kern River Gas Transmission system to MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. for $450 million in cash and assumption of $510 million in debt, and closed the sale of $275 million of its 9-7/8% cumulative convertible preferred stock to MEHC Investment Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of MidAmerican and a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies (see NGI, March 11).

The U.S. economy is spending $1 billion, or 60%, less on energy right now than it was a year ago, according to a report by Raymond James & Associates. Since the U.S. GDP is about $28 billion per day, this represents a 3.5% year-over-year windfall to our economy.