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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.

Merrill Lynch & Co. last week terminated two high-level executives, including the vice chairman, for allegedly refusing to testify to federal officials about financial services agreements the company completed with Enron Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal.

Merrill Lynch & Co. on Wednesday terminated two high-level executives, including the vice chairman, for allegedly refusing to testify to federal officials about financial services agreements the company completed with Enron Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal.

For companies whose debt level falls to “junk” status, Moody’s Investors Service plans to begin assigning “Speculative Grade Liquidity Ratings,” or SGLs, to isolate its opinion of an issuer’s liquidity risk. The ratings will specifically rate a junk-rated company’s liquidity over a 12-month period using four grades, from “very good” to “weak.”

For companies whose debt level falls to “junk” status, Moody’s Investor Service plans to begin assigning “Speculative Grade Liquidity Ratings,” or SGLs, to isolate its opinion of an issuer’s liquidity risk. The ratings will specifically rate a junk-rated company’s liquidity over a 12-month period using four grades, from “very good” to “weak.”

After carving out an 8.5-cent trading range during the first 50 minutes of trading Tuesday, natural gas futures settled down and chopped lazily sideways for the remainder of the session. The October contract finished at $3.356, down 4.3 cents for the day and just above its $3.34 low. At just 72,545, estimated volume was indicative of a market that is uncertain what forces will impact the natural gas futures market on Sept. 11.

Consultants at Energy Security Analysis Inc. said they expect a short-lived dip in gas prices sometime this month to be followed by a gradual strengthening in prices this summer because of increases in gas-fired generating capacity and a recovering economy. However, ESAI said it does not believe prices will catapult back to $10/MMBtu anytime soon.

Congressional investigators have discovered “substantial evidence of illegal activity” by the once-powerful Enron Corp. and its top-level executives to “deceive the public” about its financial condition, House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin (R-LA) said in an opening hearing statement Wednesday.

“Flat” was the word of the day in the gas market Thursday. No point varied by more than a nickel from unchanged, and a large majority of them either showed no change or were up or down by only a penny or two.