Likely

Warren Buffett will wait until Congress repeals the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA) and then is expected to add a few natural gas and electric utilities to his portfolio, CreditSights analysts said in a new report.

After receiving a combination of supportive storage and weather news Monday morning, natural gas traders lifted the futures market off its early session lows and notched a 15-cent advance in just 45 minutes. The market moved sideways throughout the afternoon as technical selling associated with congestion in the $4.35 area from last week was enough to corral bulls. January closed at $4.32, up 12 cents for the session.

Andrew Fastow, Enron Corp.’s disgraced former CFO, was “likely” to be indicted on fraud and other criminal charges by a Houston federal grand jury on Wednesday, according to Reuters, which cited unnamed sources. The prosecution had 30 days after it charged Fastow to issue an indictment, and the deadline is Thursday.

If the assessment of a top industry analyst is correct, the structure of natural gas demand is undergoing a significant change which is likely to lead to increased weather-derived price volatility. Current price levels beg the question of how such elevated prices can be sustained given full storage supplies.

Former Enron Corp. CFO Andrew Fastow is most likely deciding whether to plea bargain with federal prosecutors or become the fall guy after he was charged with five counts of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy last Wednesday in Houston. The U.S. government, claiming they were obtained illegally, is freezing and plans to require Fastow to forfeit about $37 million of his assets, according to the Department of Justice’s Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.

Most of the gas to be developed from northern Canada and Alaska probably will be routed to Chicago because “it’s about the only place that you can make a rational investment and expect a stable return,” according to a TransCanada PipeLines executive.

Most of the gas to be developed from northern Canada and Alaska probably will be routed to Chicago because “it’s about the only place that you can make a rational investment and expect a stable return,” according to a TransCanada PipeLines executive.

Overall prices tended to soften again Thursday, but the declines were considerably smaller than those on Wednesday in most cases. Except for a maintenance-related implosion in the Rockies market and a hefty drop on still-most-expensive Columbia-Appalachia (TCO), the great majority of points ranged from flat to less than a dime lower, and a couple saw moderate gains.

As many traders had anticipated, Wednesday afternoon’s dime-plus uptick in natural gas futures translated into strong cash gains at most points Thursday. However, prices again deteriorated greatly in the capacity-constrained San Juan Basin, which was joined in its softness by Rockies pipes as supplies backed up there, largely unable to get to California and east-of-California markets via El Paso.