Received

After a four-year wait, Cincinnati Gas &amp Electric Co. and PSIResources finally received unconditional approval of their mergerinto Cinergy Corp. from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Afinal decision on the merger was held up by potential Congressionalaction on the Public Utility Holding Company Act.

Unocal Canada Limited received approval from the BritishColumbia Ministry of Energy and Mines to increase the maximumstorage capacity of the Aitken Creek gas storage reservoir. Approval allows Unocal Canada to initially increase working gascapacity at Aitken by 20% to 48 Bcf as early as the second quarter. Ultimately, working gas capacity could increase to 80 Bcf, doublethe current capacity.

Unocal Canada Limited received approval from the BritishColumbia Ministry of Energy and Mines to increase the maximumstorage capacity of the Aitken Creek gas storage reservoir.Approval allows Unocal Canada to initially increase working gascapacity at Aitken by 20% to 48 Bcf as early as the second quarter.Ultimately, working gas capacity could increase to 80 Bcf, doublethe current capacity.

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology has received aplum from a favorite son, new Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, whoannounced the award of a $1.5 million DOE contract to determine thebest way to boost gas production from some of New Mexico’s mostdifficult geologic formations.

For the second day in a row Tuesday, natural gas futuresreceived a strong boost in prices from short-covering activity dueto tropical storm concerns in the Gulf of Mexico. Earl became thefifth named storm in the 1998 Atlantic hurricane season yesterdaywith sustained winds of 60 miles per hour. As of 5:00 P.M. EST Tuesday, Earl was located 240 miles South Southwest of New Orleansand moving toward the Northeast at 12 mph. The October contractopened strong and wasted little time in trending higher before anafternoon sell-off left the market with a modest 3.4 cent gainbefore the closing bell. Estimated volume was a robust 82,172.

Columbia Energy Group received high marks from Fitch IBCA, theinternational debt rating agency, for significant progress sinceemerging from bankruptcy in 1995. “Columbia exhibits a stablefinancial profile and favorable qualitative operatingcharacteristics,” Fitch said in upgrading the company’s $2 billionoutstanding debentures two notches to A from BBB+ and raising its$850 million commercial paper program F1 from F2.

The futures market received an early boost from hot weatherspreading up the East coast and a strong over-the-counter marketMonday morning, but the buying ebbed sending Nymex spiraling lowerthroughout the day. “We shot up to $2.20 in a hurry, but the marketcould offer no follow-through above that level. At that point itwas a where-do-we-go-from-here mentality and the answer to thatquestion was down,” an analyst said. That left the August contractoff 7 cents to $2.095.

Louis Dreyfus Natural Gas received a payment of $40 million forearly termination of a long-term, fixed-price gas sales contract.The terminated contract, which was with an independent powerproducer, covered 4 Bcf/year of gas which would have been deliveredthrough 2006. The total volumes of 33 Bcf, covered by thisterminated contract, are now available to be sold to othercustomers or in the spot market. Proceeds will be used to reducebank debt. The payment monetizes a portion of the value of Dreyfus’portfolio of long-term, fixed-price contracts. The value of thesecontracts is not reflected on its balance sheet. In the aggregate,the remaining contracts have a present value (discounted 10%) inexcess of market of about $125 million.

Puget Sound Energy received approval from the WashingtonUtilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) to begin a newperformance-based mechanism for strengthening its gas-supplypurchases and gas-storage practices.