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Williams saw its earnings jump 63% in the third quarter, mainly due to its acquisition of Denver-based producer Barrett Resources Corp. and strong earnings from its Energy Marketing & Trading segment, which was broken out as the company’s third industry group in September. The earnings gave Williams the impetus to raise its 2001 earnings forecast to the current consensus of $2.40 a share from a previous $2.30-$2.35 a share, and it reiterated a 15%/year earnings growth goal beginning in 2002.

EOG Resources suffered a 39% drop in third quarter net income to $69.2 million, or $0.59/share, mainly because of a decline in gas, oil and condensate prices. The company started curtailing gas and condensate production in September and has reduced its operating drilling rig fleet to 35 rigs from 50, according to CEO Mark Papa, who expects commodity prices to remain “sluggish” for about six more months.

Soaring California gas prices and rapidly rising gas demandmainly for power generation the Pacific Northwest and Californiahas prompted an expansion of the PG&E Gas TransmissionNorthwest (GTN) system. The pipeline said last week it plans tofile with FERC in April for a small initial expansion project fornext year but potentially could add 1 Bcf/d of capacity over thenext decade.

Energy stocks took a pounding yesterday mainly in reaction tocontinuing uncertainty over the financial health of California’stwo largest utilities, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gasand Electric, which got a weak short-term prescription by stateregulators (see related story this issue).

Apache Corp.’s third quarter results surpassed analysts’ profittarget by 11 cents mainly because of increases in gas and oilprices. Apache’s U.S. gas production grew 15% to 572 MMcf/d.. Thecompany’s earnings were $201.3 million, or $1.61 per share, morethan double the year-earlier profit of $67.8 million, or 59 centsper share. Revenues rose 83% to $624.6 million. Apache’s averagerealized price for oil was up 42% to $29.11/bbl and its U.S.natural gas prices were up 64% to $4.22/Mcf. During the quarter,the company completed acquisitions of producing properties in SouthTexas and the Permian Basin from Collins and Ware and in the Gulfof Mexico from Occidental Petroleum. On Oct. 9, Apache said itplanned to buy the Canadian assets of New Zealand’s FletcherChallenge Energy in a joint bid with Royal Dutch/Shell Group, whichplans to acquire the rest of the company. Regulators have blockedthe deal, but Shell and Apache hope to win approval for an amendedbid. Apache said the Fletcher deal would bring its oil and gasproperty acquisitions to about $1.5 billion this year.

Apache Corp.’s third quarter results surpassed analysts’ profittarget by 11 cents mainly because of increases in gas and oilprices. Apache’s U.S. gas production grew 15% to 572 MMcf/d.. Thecompany’s earnings were $201.3 million, or $1.61 per share, morethan double the year-earlier profit of $67.8 million, or 59 centsper share. The company’s revenues rose 83 percent to $624.6million. Apache’s average realized price for oil was up 42% to$29.11/bbl and its U.S. natural gas prices were up 64% to$4.22/Mcf. During the quarter, the company completed acquisitionsof producing properties in South Texas and the Permian Basin fromCollins and Ware and in the Gulf of Mexico from OccidentalPetroleum. On Oct. 9, Apache said it planned to buy the Canadianassets of New Zealand’s Fletcher Challenge Energy in a joint bidwith Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which plans to acquire the rest ofthe company. Regulators have blocked the deal, but Shell and Apachehope to win approval for an amended bid. Apache said the Fletcherdeal would bring its oil and gas property acquisitions to about$1.5 billion this year.

Retail marketers have been dropping like flies in Georgia, andbilling problems have been mainly to blame. As the Georgia PublicService Commission was putting the finishing touches on a notice ofproposed rulemaking (NOPR) last week that would punish retailmarketers for not getting accurate bills out on time, anothermarketer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection apparentlyrelated to billing problems in the Atlanta gas market.

Retail marketers have been dropping like flies in Georgia, andbilling problems have been mainly to blame. As the Georgia PublicService Commission was putting the finishing touches on a notice ofproposed rulemaking (NOPR) this week that would punish retailmarketers for not getting accurate bills out on time, anothermarketer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection apparentlyrelated to billing problems in the Atlanta gas market.

El Paso Energy earnings jumped 84% in the first quarter comparedto 1Q99 mainly because of cost savings from its merger with Sonatand the strong performance of its unregulated merchant energy andE&P segments.