Posting

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. reported its best-ever fourth quarter results and higher earnings overall in 2003, but like many other North American-based independents, equivalent production year-over-year was slightly off.

Houston-based Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. reported its best-ever fourth quarter results and higher earnings overall in 2003, but like many other North American-based independents, equivalent production year-over-year was slightly off.

Sonat declared an OFO Type 6 for long imbalances effective Tuesday until further notice (a later posting said the OFO would last through at least Wednesday). No penalty will apply to shippers who do not exceed an imbalance tolerance of 2% of 200 dekatherms, whichever is greater; tiered penalties ranging up to $15/Dth are in effect for larger tolerance violations. Additionally, Sonat is not accepting requests for interruptible services that rely on storage injections or requests for make-up due the pipeline.

Mojave Pipeline (Line 1900) upstream of Daggett Station will not be shut in May 27, according to an El Paso bulletin board posting. However, the Topock Compressor Station will be down to replace station controls May 27-31, during which there will be no deliveries from the El Paso interconnect (DMOJAVE). Transwestern will be able to deliver 160 MMcf/d into Mojave during the outage.

Although some analysts are posting dire warnings for falling natural gas production in Canada, first quarter reports from some of the leading producers are proving a conundrum. Talisman Energy Inc. drilled six successful wells in the first three months of the year, and its production is up 6% from a year ago. Oil-heavy Husky Energy also came through production wise in its upstream operations, up 4%. Meanwhile, Shell Canada Ltd. and Imperial Oil Ltd. both saw production declines.

Although some analysts are posting dire warnings for falling natural gas production in Canada, first quarter reports from some of the leading producers are proving a conundrum. Talisman Energy Inc. drilled six successful wells in the first three months of the year, and its production is up 6% from a year ago. Oil-heavy Husky Energy also came through production wise in its upstream operations, up 4%. Meanwhile, Shell Canada Ltd. and Imperial Oil Ltd. both saw production declines.

After posting a negative open, natural gas futures rebounded strongly Tuesday to notch its fourth-straight higher close, as both speculative and commercial traders loaded up on long positions in anticipation of the formation of Tropical Storm Isidore in the Caribbean. As it turns out, that buying was enough to press prices to a new four-month high at $3.695. Slipping only slightly to close at $3.679, the October contract finished 24.9 cents above its earlier low and 17.2 cents above Monday’s settle. Estimated at 113,063, volume in the gas pit was extremely heavy.

There will be no shutdown of the Hobart Ranch Processing Plant in Hemphill County, TX as anticipated in a February bulletin board posting, Williams Gas Pipeline-Central said Friday. Duke Energy Field Services has sold the plant to Enbridge Pipelines (Texas Gathering) Inc., which is currently processing gas at Hobart Ranch, the pipeline added. Thus the physical interconnect on Central remains available for nominations.

Duke Energy missed analysts earnings estimates for the fourth quarter and full year, posting earnings per share (EPS) of 35 cents and $2.64, respectively, compared to average Wall Street consensus estimates of 45 cents for the fourth quarter and $2.74 for the year. In 4Q2000, the company posted EPS of 47 cents and for the full year it posted $2.10. Lower commodity prices hindered growth in Duke’s field services operations and mild weather hurt results from the company’s North Carolina utility company. Based on the results, Credit Suisse First Boston analyst Curt Launer said he was lowering expectations for this year from $2.85 to $2.75/share. Duke’s stock price was down nearly 3% by mid-day on Thursday after its announcement. However, Duke’s marketing and merchant power operations performed well and are expected to showed continued strong growth this year. In addition, the company is buying Canadian pipeline giant Westcoast Energy. “Despite all of the turbulence in the industry, it was our best year ever,” said CEO Richard Priory, noting a 26% increase in ongoing earnings per share before special charges in 2001. Non-recurring items, however, brought earnings per share gains down to only 2.5%, and the company’s fourth quarter was particularly difficult with diluted earnings per share after special items down 26% to 28 cents. Priory said the company’s balanced energy portfolio led to full-year improvements. Marketing and trading operations, merchant power and Duke’s other unregulated businesses showed earnings growth of 127%. Before special items, the company posted record earnings of $2.64/share compared to $2.10 in 2000, but short of the $2.74 average of analysts’ estimates. Including non-recurring items, Duke posted $2.45/share in 2001 compared to $2.39 in 2000. Net income for the year rose to $1.9 billion from $1.8 billion in 2000. Revenues for 2001 grew 21% to $60 billion. Fourth quarter net income fell to $225 million from $284 million.