Pitfalls

The Teucrium Natural Gas Fund (NAGS Fund) began trading as an exchange-traded fund on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca Tuesday, seeking to avoid the pitfalls that have dogged an existing natural gas commodity fund by basing daily changes in its net asset value (NAV) on a weighted average of the New York Mercantile Exchange (Nymex) Henry Hub quotes for the four shoulder months instead of just the front month.

Even with a conservative Henry Hub gas price forecast of $5/MMBtu in 2004 and $3.50 over the long term and an oil price forecast of $30/bbl in 2004 and $21/bbl for beyond 2005, the credit rating picture and overall fundamentals for the exploration and production sector should continue to improve unless certain thorny issues, such as reserve revisions, get in the way of some companies, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said in a new report.

Even with a conservative Henry Hub gas price forecast of $5/MMBtu in 2004 and $3.50 over the long term and an oil price forecast of $30/bbl in 2004 and $21/bbl for beyond 2005, the credit rating picture and overall fundamentals for the exploration and production sector should continue to improve unless certain thorny issues, such as reserve revisions, get in the way of some companies, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) said in a new report.

Dynegy Inc. on Wednesday told shareholders that “it is in no way associated with Main Street AC and expresses no recommendation on the unsolicited offer,” while Mirant recommended its shareholders not sell any stock to the San Diego-based company that offered to pay cash for 4.9% of the energy merchants Tuesday, as well as Aquila Inc. and Reliant Resources Inc. (see Daily GPI, Sept. 4).

Inefficient customer education, inadequate marketercertification and poorly developed information systems forconsumers led to many of the early problems associated withGeorgia’s 1998 natural gas deregulation efforts, according to PaulaG. Rosput, CEO of AGL Resources.

Inefficient customer education, inadequate marketercertification and poorly developed information systems forconsumers led to many of the early problems associated withGeorgia’s 1998 natural gas deregulation efforts, according to PaulaG. Rosput, CEO of AGL Resources.

Coastal Corp. was able to buck the trend of poor second quarterearnings by improving refining margins, increasing its gasproduction 22% to 526 MMcf/d and raising its crude oil andcondensate production by 50% to18,063 b/d. The company reportedsecond quarter earnings of $94.6 million, or 43 cents per share, up23% (on a per share basis) from 2Q97 earnings of $79.3 million, 35cents/share.