Makes

The last gasp of winter may have been heard last Thursday when the Energy Information Administration (EIA) startled market observers by reporting a 9 Bcf net withdrawal from gas storage for the week ending April 4 after two weeks of solid net injections.

The winter apparently isn’t dead yet. After two weeks of solid net injections into gas storage, market observers were startled Thursday morning when the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a 9 Bcf net withdrawal during the past week. It was clearly a step in the wrong direction if the industry plans to make an attempt at rivaling the record injection rate in 2001 just to get storage back to near adequate levels by the beginning of next winter.

With a sobering re-emphasis of its basic energy and energy-related businesses, Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp. announced last week that two of its longtime executives were retiring, and rather than filling the positions the company will collapse their duties into expanded roles for two existing executives at the company. It is part of a “realignment” of its overall management structure that stresses “back-to-basics,” a company spokesperson said.

In addition to much improved fourth quarter earnings and cash flow and a bullish outlook for 2003 and 2004, Dallas-based Pioneer Natural Resources said it made a significant new deepwater Gulf of Mexico discovery on its Harrier prospect near the Falcon field. The well was drilled to 9,510 feet and encountered over 350 feet of gas-bearing sand in a single zone.

While the western energy moguls slept, AMP took over for California’s electric transmission grid operator, CAISO, as an automatic screening agent to throw out any anomalous wholesale electricity bids into its real-time balancing market. It came one second past midnight Wednesday morning, ushering in FERC’s $250/MWh soft cap, but using the $91.87/MWh old cap as the heart of the three-step screening process. AMP stands for “automated mitigation procedure.”

What a difference a year makes. As if anyone wanted to be reminded, it was Oct. 16, 2001 when Enron Corp. released its third-quarter earnings, boasting of continued growth, despite a billion-dollar write-off. Within weeks, that incidental write-off that was barely discussed during a conference call with analysts by then-CEO Ken Lay, eventually would erase the entire company (see NGI, Oct. 22, 2001). Fast forward to one year later, and despite its disappearance, Enron’s once mighty shadow continues to darken the marketplace.

What a difference a year makes. As if anyone wanted to be reminded, it was Oct. 16, 2001 when Enron Corp. released its third-quarter earnings, boasting of continued growth, despite a billion-dollar write-off. Within weeks, that incidental write-off that was barely discussed during a conference call with analysts by then-CEO Ken Lay, eventually would erase the entire company (see Daily GPI, Oct. 17, 2001). Fast forward to one year later, and despite its disappearance, Enron’s once mighty shadow continues to darken the marketplace.

Richmond, VA-based Dominion announced strong third quarter earnings bolstered by higher returns in its pipeline and E&P units, and saying it was on track to continue the trend into the fourth quarter and come close to its stated earnings guidance of $4.90 to $4.95.

The Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) has taken a number of “steps in the right direction” to improve its oversight of the safety of natural gas and hazardous liquids pipelines, but it still has a long way to go, a General Accounting Office (GAO) official told Congress last week.