Role

Enron Corp.’s former CEO Jeffrey Skilling was indicted by a Houston grand jury Wednesday and is expected to turn himself into the FBI authorities Thursday, according to unnamed sources quoted by The Houston Chronicle.

Looking to expand both its acreage and proven natural gas and oil reserve base, Oklahoma City, OK-based Chesapeake Energy Corp. has entered into agreements to acquire $510 million of Midcontinent, Permian Basin and onshore Gulf Coast oil and gas assets through recent agreements to acquire privately-owned Concho Resources Inc. for $420 million and two smaller property acquisitions totaling $90 million.

The broad energy bill’s proposals putting FERC in the business of collecting prices on natural gas and electricity trades are a bad idea because they would interfere with energy markets and the price discovery process, and would keep FERC from carrying out its more important market-monitoring duties, said Commissioner Sharon Brown-Hruska of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Thursday.

Calling the wholesalers’ mass exodus of retail energy marketing a “cyclical” process, Compass Energy Services Inc. President Chris Ziegler said he expects the large companies to return to the segment at some point, but not in the near future.

Calling the wholesalers’ mass exodus of retail energy marketing a “cyclical” process, Compass Energy Services Inc. President Chris Ziegler said he expects the large companies to return to the segment at some point, but not in the near future.

Natural gas is playing an indirect, but clear role for the nation’s two largest wind power project developer/operators. They not only draw on some of the wholesale gas market’s volatility, but also on the location-scouting demands of underground gas storage facility development to find wind buyers and sites. One of the two companies is combining its wind and gas storage operations in one energy development business unit.

The door is open to future equity partners, a possible transportation role and ultimately a slight delay in the start-up of San Diego-based Sempra Energy’s aggressive plans for siting two liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals in the West and Gulf coasts by 2007, according to Sempra’s CEO Stephen Baum, responding to questions from financial analysts in a earnings conference call Thursday.

Alberta, Canada’s Justice Department said last Wednesday that it has been cooperating with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into allegations that an ex-trader with Merrill Lynch & Co.’s energy trading arm laundered $42 million of funds stolen from the investment firm through a Canadian offshore banking company.

Alberta, Canada’s Justice Department said Wednesday that it has been cooperating with a Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigation into allegations that an ex-trader with Merrill Lynch & Co.’s energy trading arm laundered $42 million of funds stolen from the investment firm through a Canadian offshore banking company.