List

Joining the growing list of companies that have posted declines in the third quarter due to low oil and gas prices, Phillips Petroleum Co. reported net income, including special item charges, of $364 million ($1.30 per share), compared with $426 million ($1.66 per share) during the same quarter a year ago. The company posted total revenues of $6.2 billion, showing an increase from the $5.7 billion results from a year ago.

If Houston-based Enron Corp., the acknowledged largest energy trader in the world, had a wish list of things it might want to add to its bartering bag, it might be to trade in this entire year. So far, the news seems to have gone from bad to worse, with business deals gone sour, the CEO abruptly departing last summer, the first quarterly loss in more than four years, rumors of shady business deals, and as of Friday, a plunging stock price that seems to find no floor.

Joining the growing list of concerned analysts, UBS Warburg’s Ronald Barone said last week he expects to lower his natural gas price forecasts again this week and cut earnings projections for multiple energy companies in light of lower prices and the downturn in the economy.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the list of threats and vulnerabilities to the nation’s energy infrastructure is “a lot longer now,” said Robbie Gillham, manager of global security for Conoco Inc. At the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission’s (IOGCC) panel discussion, the topic of the day focused mainly on the role states must play in maintaining, protecting and encouraging domestic oil and natural gas production during a crisis.

Joining the growing list of concerned analysts, UBS Warburg’s Ronald Barone said that with continued lackluster fundamentals and falling prices this week in the natural gas industry, he would not rule out a “similar decline” in spot prices next week as well. In conjunction, Barone said UBS Warburg will take the step that some of its peers have already taken this week and release an updated 2001/2002 composite spot price forecast, along with earnings per share reductions, next week.

Joining a growing list of companies lowering their forecasts, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the second largest oil company in the world, has reduced its production growth estimate to 3% a year, down from the 5% a year it had targeted in 1998. The reduction applies to targets set through 2005.

Joining a growing list of companies lowering their forecasts, Royal Dutch/Shell Group, the second largest oil company in the world, has reduced its production growth estimate to 3% a year, down from the 5% a year it had targeted in 1998. The reduction applies to targets set through 2005.

Phillips Petroleum Co., which holds down fifth place on the list of oil and gas companies worldwide, said its second quarter profits were up more than expected, jumping 37% on crude oil, natural gas and gasoline commodity pricing. Phillips, in the process of acquiring Tosco Corp., said income excluding special items was up to $601 million, or $2.33 a share, compared with $439 million, or $1.72 a share for the second quarter of 2000. However, revenues were lower, falling to $5 billion from $5.4 billion a year ago.

Houston-based energy marketer Dynegy Inc. is joining an impressive list of companies poised to build U.S.-based liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities, announcing Thursday it will construct a plant at its existing liquefied petroleum gas terminal site in Hackberry, LA. Because the Gulf Coast site is already developed, the facility could be operational two to three years sooner than a greenfield project, with the first phase of commercial operation set for the end of 2003.