Reversing

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to beat back criticism Monday of a proposal he made in last month’s fiscal revisions aimed at reversing the state’s worsening budget crisis by securing an additional $100 million of annual revenues from the limited opening of drilling offshore Santa Barbara. Schwarzenegger’s proposal was tied to the dismantling of four existing offshore platforms in the area.

Tuesday’s rebound in natural gas futures prices continued Wednesday morning until running into resistance and reversing lower. The August contract reached a high of $6.840 before settling on the day’s low of $6.600, down 9.9 cents from Tuesday’s close.

Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state-owned oil and gas company, is reversing a decline in its natural gas production and by 2010, output is forecast to be around 8 Bcf/d — nearly double what it was three years ago, a company executive said last week.

Reversing their traditional adversarial roles, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) utility watchdog group announced Thursday they are cooperating on a winter bill mitigation program in the face of skyrocketing wholesale natural gas prices in the aftermath of the recent violent hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. The utility announced two major new initiatives it has developed in conjunction with TURN.

After settling near the day’s high on Monday, May natural gas futures wasted almost no time in reversing their course on Tuesday. After peaking at $7.39 in morning trade, the prompt month spent the rest of the session exploring lower, reaching a low of $7.085 just before settling at $7.094, down 21.5 cents on the day. With the recent uptrend now broken, some market experts believe that $7 futures might not be around much longer.

Reversing red ink in the same two periods in 2003, Sierra Pacific Resources Monday reported a return to profitability for both the fourth quarter and full year last year. Fourth quarter earnings were $27.3 million, or 15 cents/share, compared with a consolidated loss of $19.8 million, or 17 cents/share, for the same period in 2003, and for all of 2004, the company reported net income of $28.6 million, or 16 cents/share, compared with a loss of $140.5 million, or $1.21/share, for the overall prior year.

Dynegy Inc. blew away analysts’ forecasts on Wednesday, reversing a year-ago second quarter loss on the strength in its power generation and natural gas liquids (NGL) businesses. The Houston-based company, which had teetered toward bankruptcy two years ago, also improved its full-year outlook by settling four natural gas transportation contracts.

A comeback by Canadian natural gas exporters shows signs of accelerating fast, sharply reversing a decline in 2002 that broke a 14-year winning streak of consecutive annual record sales to the United States.

A comeback by Canadian natural gas exporters shows signs of accelerating fast, sharply reversing a decline in 2002 that broke a 14-year winning streak of consecutive annual record sales to the United States.