Options

Virginia Gas Co., a small integrated natural gas companyoperating in the southwestern tip of Virginia, has selectedOppenheimer Corp. as its financial advisor to conduct an evaluationof the company, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and strategicalternatives available.

Virginia Gas Co., a small integrated natural gas companyoperating in the southwestern tip of Virginia, has selectedOppenheimer Corp. as its financial advisor to conduct an evaluationof the company, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and strategicalternatives available.

For the second day in a row, the natural gas futures market wascaught in tug of war as traders weighed their options-either buyinto the recent rally or sell, expecting a return to thelong-standing downtrend. The indecision could be seen inyesterday’s price action where prices trended higher in the morningonly to turn sharply lower in the afternoon. The May contractfinished 4 cents lower at $2.096.

Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, VA, and a subsidiary ofPittsburgh-based Consolidated Natural Gas Co. signed an agreementto develop gas-fired power generation facilities along CNG’spipeline system. Dominion Resources and CNG power company willidentify and evaluate potential sites for development of facilitiesalong CNG’s natural gas pipeline network in Ohio, Pennsylvania, NewYork, West Virginia and Virginia. Dominion Resources and CNGaffiliates will develop, own, operate and maintain the facilitieson a 50-50 ownership basis.

After nearly two years of deliberation, the Commodity FuturesTrading Commission conditionally approved a new rule permitting theNew York Mercantile Exchange to hold a three-year pilot duringwhich futures contracts can be exchanged for positions in swaptransactions (EFS transactions). Rule 6.21A is designed to providea closer link between the on-exchange futures market andoff-exchange swaps markets, giving off-exchange participantsgreater ability to manage the risks associated with swap positions.

Bears had their choice of reasons for continuing to push thefutures market lower Thursday: forecasts calling for warmingweather, an unremarkable storage report, and follow-through sellingpressure. And so when the February contract opened more than anickel below Wednesday’s low, the price rout was on yesterday. Thesell-off sent the prompt month 9.5-cents lower to settle at $1.836.

While FERC’s regulatory gas options paper so far has been kepttightly under wraps, Commissioner Curt L. Hebert Jr. clearly is nothiding his views on some of the most important issues theCommission will face over the next few years. In an articlepublished in the Energy Law Journal, Hebert begins to tackle thequestion of how the Commission can “develop incentives that willspur the industry to act more competitively.”

Coastal’s ANR Pipeline is seeking FERC approval to implement twonew interruptible services and expand service options availableunder its firm storage service tariff. The proposed new servicesare called interruptible parking and lending service, andinterruptible wheeling service. “We are offering these new servicesin response to requests by our customers, who have indicated a needfor more product choices and flexibility due to the dynamic natureof today’s natural gas marketplace,” said Jeffrey A. Connelly, ANRCEO. “The revisions we are proposing to our firm storage servicewill provide ANR’s shippers with an array of additional serviceflexibility in managing their supply portfolios.”

PG&E Corp. has hired Credit Suisse First Boston (CS FirstBoston) of Melbourne, Australia, to evaluate various options forall of PG&E’s Australian assets, including a possible sale. Thecompany has made an about-face from aggressive investment inAustralia to continued expansion of its North American assets,particularly power generation in New England and pipeline andtrading operations in Texas. Over the past two years, PG&E haspurchased the 390-mile Queensland Gas Pipeline, running fromWalumbilla (near Roma) to Gladstone and Rockhampton, for US$138million, and planned huge expansion projects, including a proposedAU$30 million extension of the Queensland Pipeline and a AU$1billion, 994-mile gas pipeline project from the North West Shelf tothe South-West of the State. It also has built an activeQueensland-based energy trading business.