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The Fayetteville Shale, where Southwestern Energy Corp. is the dominant player, powered double-digit production growth and profits for the company in 2Q2007. Gross daily natural gas output from its Arkansas leasehold was up four-fold from a year ago, to 200 MMcf/d from 50 MMcf/d in 2Q2006.

In its second big step into pasture paddy-powered electricity, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced last week another waste-to-energy renewable contract in California’s manure-laced central agricultural valley, inking a 10-year deal for up to 3 Bcf of what the utility calls “renewable natural gas” annually from BioEnergy Solutions. As with a similar deal with another biogas provider last fall, the price and other terms of the agreement were kept confidential.

In its second big step into pasture paddy-powered electricity, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Monday another waste-to-energy renewable contract in California’s manure-laced central agricultural valley, inking a 10-year deal for up to 3 Bcf of what the utility calls “renewable natural gas” annually from BioEnergy Solutions.. As with a similar deal with another biogas provider last fall, the price and other terms of the agreement were kept confidential.

Powered by uncertainty on where Hurricane Katrina’s second landfall will be, September natural gas futures on Friday made another stab at the psychological $10 level. Ahead of its expiration on Monday, the contract matched Wednesday’s $10.02 high, but once again failed to test the all-time regular session high of $10.10.

Powered by auxiliary generators and manned by just a fraction of the traders and staff that usually support the world’s largest energy market, natural gas trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange experienced a 30-minute delayed opening Friday due to the massive electricity blackout. But despite the paucity of traders, the outage, and the storm in the Gulf of Mexico (see related story), trading proceeded in a surprising orderly manner in the abbreviated session that concluded at 12:30 p.m. EDT. The September contract finished at $4.848, down 4.3 cents for the session.

Powered by its marketing and trading unit, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. last week reported a 55% increase in its third quarter earnings from a year ago and also saw its net income jump 62%. With a strong finish expected for the year, Dynegy now predicts it will show 45% growth over 2000 — substantially higher than its prediction of 25% growth a year earlier, and remains optimistic of a 20% growth rate for several more years. CEO Chuck Watson attributed the stellar performance to Dynegy’s focus and intellectual capital, and predicted the company would continue to execute its strategies “regardless of market conditions.”

Powered by its marketing and trading unit, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. on Monday reported a 55% increase in its third quarter earnings from a year ago and also saw its net income jump 62%. With a strong finish expected for the year, Dynegy now predicts it will show 45% growth over 2000 — substantially higher than its prediction of 25% growth a year earlier, and remains optimistic of a 20% growth rate for several more years. CEO Chuck Watson attributed the stellar performance to Dynegy’s focus and intellectual capital, and predicted the company would continue to execute its strategies “regardless of market conditions.”

A stable of some of the leading energy companies have partnered up to form TradeSpark, an electronic marketplace powered by developer eSpeed Inc., that will offer natural gas, electricity, coal, weather derivatives and emissions credits through the Internet, private enterprise or via voice brokers beginning this week.

A stable of some of the leading energy companies have partneredup to form TradeSpark, an electronic marketplace powered bydeveloper eSpeed Inc., that will offer natural gas, electricity,coal, weather derivatives and emissions credits through theInternet, private enterprise or via voice brokers beginning Oct. 2.