Lost

California’s top energy regulator thinks the momentum forrestructuring the state’s natural gas industry has lost most of itssteam. Responding to questions during a break at a statewide energyroundtable in San Diego Tuesday, Richard Bilas, president of theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission, said he is unsure whenregulators will be able to make recommendations to the statelegislature for further gas unbundling.

Midcoast Interstate Transmission and two groups oflandowners-environmentalists last week lost their year-long battlein court to overturn the FERC orders awarding a certificate toSouthern Natural Gas to build and operate a competing pipelineextension into northern Alabama.

Midcoast Interstate Transmission and two groups oflandowners/environmentalists have lost their year-long battle incourt to overturn FERC orders awarding a certificate to SouthernNatural Gas to build and operate an extension into northernAlabama.

Koch Gateway Pipeline last week lost out in its years-long questat FERC to be the first major interstate pipeline to winmarket-based rates for its primary firm and interruptibletransportation services on a system-wide basis. The issue is nowripe for court review.

Cash prices Monday recovered all or most of the territory theyhad lost on Friday-and even more in some cases. Buoyed by a sharplyhigher screen and even a bit of re-emerging air conditioning load,cash numbers moved up by about a dime or more at virtually allpoints except Northern California, topped off by scattered gains of20-21 cents. Even crude oil futures, which had been in free-falllate last week, added a little psychological strength by clawingtheir way back above $21/bbl.

NiSource Inc. has lost another round in its takeover bid forColumbia Energy. A Delaware court judge earlier this week dismissed aNiSource lawsuit aimed at forcing Columbia to reconvene its annualstockholders’ meeting in order to elect a 13th member to the board ofdirectors. NiSource claimed Columbia acted illegally in not fillingthe vacancy at its last annual meeting. NiSource was seeking to electits own representative for Columbia’s board as part of its campaign toannex the Herndon, VA, company through a $68/share hostile takeover. ADelaware Court of Chancery judge said Wednesday he did not believethere was a legal or practical basis for restaging the annualmeeting. NiSource, which made the takeover bid in early June, has twoother lawsuits targeting Columbia still to be decided (See Daily GPI,July 30).

Chevron announced last Thursday it lost 35% of its profitscompared to the same period in 1998. The company reported a netincome of $329 million or $0.50/diluted share versus $507 millionor $0.77/diluted share in 1998’s first quarter. The oil and gascompany sold oil at an average of under $10/barrel (a 20% drop form1Q98 prices) and gas at an average of $1.63/Mcf (a 22% drop from 1Q98).

Chevron announced Thursday it lost 35% of its profits comparedto the same period in 1998. The company reported a net income of$329 million or $0.50/diluted share versus $507 million or$0.77/diluted share in 1998’s first quarter. The oil and gascompany sold oil at an average of under $10/barrel (a 20% drop form1Q98 prices) and gas at an average of $1.63/Mcf (a 22% drop from 1Q98).

The March futures contract lost 5.3 cents to settle Wednesday at$1.765, thanks to what sources believe was a combination of weaktechnical and fundamental factors. “Today’s drop in the Marchcontract was actually a response to a failure at the 18-day movingaverage for March of $1.824,” one trader said, although otherschimed in many people sold ahead of what they thought would be abearish AGA storage report. Sure enough, the actual report came inat 78 Bcf of withdrawals, which is “significantly” lower than the102 Bcf of gas withdrawn during the same period last year.