Plummets

Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) saw its pretax profit plummet 62% to $19.9 million, its cash flow drop 47% to $27.1 million and its revenues tumble 25% to $93.7 million last year as the energy trading business struggled through a credit crisis and trading dropped sharply on its over-the-counter (OTC) electronic marketplace.

The number of gas and power mergers and acquisitions across the globe fell sharply in 2003 to a historical low, but gas deals fared the worst, plummeting 91% in terms of total value, according to an annual report released Monday in London by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The market quieted down Friday as the weather-related excitementof last week receded. Eastern points, still just the teensiest bitnervous about the former Tropical Storm Helene and getting a bitchillier in northern market areas, ranged from flat to about anickel lower in most cases.

Columbia Energy Group’s eight-month refrain of “wrong price,wrong time, wrong company,” referring to NiSource’s hostile tenderoffer, was unexpectedly altered yesterday to the more upbeat tuneof right price, right time, right company. However, Columbia CEOOliver G. Richard III won’t be playing the lead fiddle much longer.

Feeding off last Thursday’s late sell-off, natural gas futurestumbled lower yesterday as traders liquidated January positionsahead of the contract’s expiration Tuesday. After gapping lower atthe open, January dropped below key support levels at $2.38-39 and$2.32-34 en route to its $2.271 settlement. Including yesterday’s12.8-cent decline, the January contract has plummeted 45 cents fromMonday’s $2.715 high of a week ago.

Record low rig counts are a sure sign of an energy industry incrisis, according to the Independent Petroleum Association ofAmerica (IPAA). The Baker Hughes rotary rig count dated Jan. 22 forNorth America was at 942, a steep drop from the count one year agoof 1,508.