Nearly

At the end of a mostly negative price week, traders decided togo quietly into the weekend Friday. Nearly all points were flat toless than 4 cents up or down.

Nearly all of Thursday’s cash market experienced the steep pricedeclines that had been anticipated after the screen reactedbearishly to AGA’s Wednesday afternoon storage report.

Cash prices plunged as expected Thursday, with nearly everypoint in all markets down between 20 and 30 cents.

Prices went up by about a dime or more at nearly all pointsWednesday, but sources were in consensus that the brief marketfirmness will not continue today.

Atlanta’s natural gas utility holding company, AGL ResourcesInc., whose stock prices have fallen nearly 14% in the past year,said last week that cost cutting and more customers will pushthird-quarter profits ahead of analysts’ estimates. AGL wasexpected to earn 21 cents a share in the three months ending lastFriday (June 30), the average estimate of several analysts polledby First Call/Thomson Financial.

Atlanta’s natural gas utility holding company, AGL ResourcesInc., whose stock prices have fallen nearly 14% in the past year,said yesterday that cost cutting and more customers will pushthird-quarter profits ahead of analysts’ estimates. AGL wasexpected to earn 21 cents a share in the three months ending today,the average estimate of several analysts polled by FirstCall/Thomson Financial.

Western Resources’ preliminary earnings for April and May werenearly double the entire 1999 second quarter earnings, and assumingthat June is a “normal weather month” with no unexpected events,the company said yesterday it expects to exceed its 1994 record forsix-month earnings that brought $1.46 a share. The earnings fromthe Topeka, KS-based company’s electric utility operations were”significantly ahead” of the company’s expectations, with most ofthe increase attributed to increased earnings in wholesale powermarketing transactions. The preliminary earnings for April and Maytotaled $0.50 per share, compared with $0.27 per share for theentire second quarter of 1999.

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. has agreed to sell three naturalgas gathering systems for nearly $21 million to WBI Holdings Inc., thenatural gas pipeline unit of MDU Resources Group Inc. The gatheringsystems in Montana, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska include operationsthat were discontinued for divestiture last September as part ofKinder’s “back to basics” restructuring program (see NGI, Sept. 20, 1999).

Houston-based Kinder Morgan Inc. yesterday agreed to sell threenatural gas gathering systems for nearly $21 million to WBI HoldingsInc., the natural gas pipeline unit of MDU Resources Group Inc. Thegathering systems in Montana, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska, includeoperations that were discontinued for divestiture last September aspart of Kinder’s “back to basics” restructuring program (see DailyGPI, Sept. 16, 1999).