Mark

Paul D. Jacob is taking over as president of Edison MissionMarketing & Trading (EMMT), a subsidiary of Edison MissionEnergy and Edison International. He succeeds Mark Maisto, whoresigned. Maisto presided over the transition following EdisonMission Energy’s acquisition of Boston-based Citizens Power lastyear. Maisto will join RockPort Partners, a Boston investment bankwhich focuses on energy and environmental technology.

DPL reported yesterday that it has notched a record for earningsper share before extraordinary items in 2000 at $1.56, a 15%increase over the $1.35 mark the company posted for 1999. Likewise,the company beat 1999’s fourth quarter level of $0.27 per share by$0.10. For the fourth quarter, the company posted net income of $45million, compared to the 1999 level of $40.6 million. For the year2000, DPL’s net income was $199 million, which shows a slightdecrease from the $204.2 million the company showed in 1999. “Our2000 financial and operating results reflect the significant stepswe took in preparing the company for the deregulated energymarket,” said CEO Allen Hill. “In addition, our focus on merchantgeneration expansion will lead to continued industry leadinggrowth.” DPL expects 2001 earnings per share to increase more than20% from the $1.56 in 2000 to $1.90. In addition, DPL forecaststhat its earnings are expected to increase at an annual rate of atleast 10% after 2001, and could reach a rate of up to 15%.Ohio-based DPL has two subsidiaries, DPL Energy and Dayton Power& Light Co.

As Mark Twain once observed, everybody likes to talk about theweather, and that was especially true in the gas trading communityTuesday. With the official calendar start of winter still more thana month away, it seemed like winter has already begun in almostevery region. The predictable effect was to keep both cash andfutures prices pushing higher, with the screen scaling previouslyunknown heights.

A popular Mark Twain quotation goes, “Everybody talks about theweather but nobody does anything about it.” Well, utilities andend-users don’t want anybody doing anything at all about theweather because it was the primary reason (again, for the umpteenthtime) for prices to return to double-digit descents Friday in mostcases.

Mark Twain once said that while everybody talks about theweather, nobody does anything about it. And although that may haveheld true on a 19th century Mississippi Riverboat, it was not thecase in the natural trading pit Tuesday as traders bid up pricesthroughout the session on the news two new tropical systems hadformed in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.

With temperatures across much of the East Coast pushing abovethe 70-degree mark yesterday, natural gas futures traders hadlittle choice but to take prices lower. But in contrast to lastThursday’s price direction, which had the trajectory of a safepushed out of a 10-story building, Monday’s market had a some lifeleft in it, enabling traders to trim losses throughout much of thesession. After reaching a low of $2.805 during the first 30 minutesof trading, the December contract battled back to finish at $2.914,off 4.7 cents for the day. Estimated volume was light with just57,373 contracts changing hands.

KN Energy’s Mark Kissel, director of account services, saidyesterday the major firm transportation deal signed between NaturalGas Pipeline Company of America and Aquila Energy earlier this weekhas a net present value for the pipeline of $31.16 million, which isguaranteed revenue and excludes revenue sharing above that level thatis based on several different pricing strategies. The contract covers150,000 MMBtu/d of firm capacity on NGPL’s Amarillo leg and 350,00MMBtu/d on NGPL’s Gulf leg for two years (see Daily GPI, Sept. 28).

FERC’s attempt at a “Solomonic solution” to the ongoing debateover the function of Sea Robin Pipeline – dividing the offshoresystem in two, with the smaller part being declared transportationand the larger section found to be gathering – apparently hasfailed miserably, with both pipelines and their customers citingshortcomings with the remand decision and seeking rehearing. If theSea Robin ruling is upheld by FERC, the case – which has beenpending since 1995 – would be headed back to the courts for asecond time.

Lacking strong leadership for the fourth day in a row thenatural gas futures market continued to limp lazily sidewaysFriday. But unlike the modest gains that were posted Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday, prices drifted lower to close out the week,possibly setting the market up for more losses today. The Julycontract finished 3.7-cents lower at $2.258.