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California regulators and other state energy officials have asked FERC to publicly disclose the responses of natural gas marketers to agency questions dealing with the misreporting of gas prices to energy trade newsletters that publish gas price indexes.

Deepwater field development worldwide is forecast to continue its strong growth through 2007, and in 2003, the most — $5.29 billion — will be spent in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to global analysts Douglas-Westwood Ltd. Worldwide, development in the next five years likely will double, provided there are enough trained workers and enough profit for contractors.

Cleco Corp. last Thursday said that it has identified so-called “round trip” trades, as well as transactions that may have violated affiliate regulations established by FERC and the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC), after a review initiated by its board of directors of certain energy trading activities over the past three years.

Deepwater field development worldwide is forecast to continue its strong growth through 2007, and in 2003, the most — $5.29 billion — will be spent in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, according to global analysts Douglas-Westwood Ltd. Worldwide, development in the next five years likely will double, provided there are enough trained workers and enough profit for contractors.

Andrew Fastow, Enron Corp.’s disgraced former CFO, was “likely” to be indicted on fraud and other criminal charges by a Houston federal grand jury on Wednesday, according to Reuters, which cited unnamed sources. The prosecution had 30 days after it charged Fastow to issue an indictment, and the deadline is Thursday.

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services joined other top ratings agencies in cutting Mirant’s credit rating to junk on Monday, citing a heavy debt burden, declining cash position and a growing dependence on asset sales to maintain liquidity.

Outside of Rockies numbers plummeting by 40 cents or more, and a smaller San Juan-Blanco loss of a little more than 20 cents, the cash market held up more strongly Friday than some traders had expected. Non-Rockies/San Juan quotes ranged from flat to up nearly a dime, with gains of less than a nickel most common.

A major interstate gas pipeline group said Friday it was “deeply concerned by the policy implications” of a FERC judge’s ruling last month that El Paso Natural Gas withheld pipeline capacity from customers during the California energy crisis by not operating its system at the maximum allowable pressure (MAOP). The decision in the high-profile complaint case could potentially affect all interstate pipelines, subjecting their operational decisions to the “second-guessing” of regulators, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) warned.

Three independent producers led the way in making bids in the Western Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 184, and two other independents had the highest bids in the sale held Wednesday by the Minerals Management Service (MMS) in New Orleans. The sale attracted $151 million in high bids, and 40 companies participated in bidding for 4,102 offshore oil and gas tracts. The sale covered approximately 22.3 million acres offshore Texas and Louisiana. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. submitted the most bids at 53, followed by Amerada Hess with 52 and Pioneer Natural Resources with 42.