Pulling

Although FERC is pulling out the stops to address this summer’s upheaval in California’s bulk power market, Chairman James J. Hoecker made clear last week that most of the responsibility for correcting the dysfunctional electric market lies with the California legislators and regulators who created it.

Although FERC is pulling out the stops to address problems inthe bulk power market, with an emphasis on California, ChairmanJames J. Hoecker yesterday made clear most of the responsibilityfor correcting the dysfunctional power market lies with theCalifornia legislators and regulators who created it.

Longtime industry basement dweller Chesapeake Energy is finallypulling itself up by its bootstraps with a little help from the gasmarket and Gothic Energy. The company announced on Friday that itplans to buy Gothic, its frequent Midcontinent drilling partner, ina stock and cash transaction valued at about $345 million.

Longtime industry basement dweller Chesapeake Energy is finallypulling itself up by its bootstraps with a little help from the gasmarket and Gothic Energy. The company announced on Friday that itplans to buy Gothic, its frequent Midcontinent region drillingpartner, in a stock and cash transaction valued at about $345million.

With moderating temperatures, a hurricane lull and an upcomingholiday weekend pulling the rug out from under bidweek cash prices,the Nymex October futures contract also decided to take the plungeyesterday, plummeting into the $2.70s before settling in thelow-$2.80s and adding to last week’s market dip. Some observersbelieve October is destined to test at least the $2.60s before thisdrop is over.

Extreme cold, with both gas heating customers and electric powercustomers pulling on gas supplies, pushed demand on Pacific Gas& Electric’s gas system from 3 Bcf/d to 4.5 Bcf/d Monday,sending the California ISO into an emergency alert situation andforcing the cut-off of some interruptible power contracts.