Seems

To paraphrase a quotation attributed to Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens), everybody talks about the weather, but nobody seems to agree about the forecasts. Will El Nino warm up the Northeast and cool off the South and wreak havoc on utility and natural gas earnings? Will the Pacific Northwest have less rain this winter? And, most important, will the snow stop long enough in the Northeast to shovel the walkways clear for a day?

In what seems like the never ending tale of woe, there was at least a little good news for Enron Corp. after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York approved a deal late Friday for UBS Warburg to pick up its quickly fading wholesale energy trading unit. Tuesday, the bad news returned. An attorney claimed to have a box of Enron documents shredded by employees, several states began work on a class action lawsuit, and by the end of the day, federal guards were posted in the downtown Houston headquarters to prevent any more documents from being “lost.”

Pennsylvania-based PPL Corp. apparently has been watching itsfair share of westerns as it seems the company has recently takenon a “Go West” theme. This is evidenced by the company’s plans tobuild 1,800 MW of new electricity generation on the left coast atan estimated development cost of $900 million.

California seems as unprepared as ever this week to meet itsenergy needs in the face of a blast of cold weather. The pricestell much of the story. While power prices continued to make gainsyesterday, reaching near $240/MWh during peak hours according tothe California Power Exchange, spot gas prices held ground atrecord levels above $8/MMBtu. Meanwhile, gas and electric utilitiesthroughout the state and the state’s electric grid operator issueda variety of emergency alerts.

The numbers, it seems, don’t tell the entire story. Even thoughoil and gas industry upstream revenues, profits and cash flow areshowing record profits for 1999 compared with the previous year’scollapse, exploration and development spending dropped and provedreserves spending rose significantly, according to ArthurAndersen’s 21st annual Global E&P Trends survey.

The numbers, it seems, don’t tell the entire story. Even thoughoil and gas industry upstream revenues, profits and cash flow areshowing record profits for 1999 compared with the previous year’scollapse, exploration and development spending dropped and provedreserves spending rose significantly, according to ArthurAndersen’s 21st annual Global E&P Trends survey.

For Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., the news, it seems,just gets better and better. The Houston-based independent, whichless than a year ago had seriously considered selling its assets,reported last week that it has raised its year-end estimates ofproved natural gas reserves by 45% to 1,467 Bcf, and proved naturalgas liquids by 18% to 210 MM barrels.

For Mitchell Energy & Development Corp., the news, it seems,just gets better and better. The Houston-based independent, whichless than a year ago had seriously considered selling its assets,reported yesterday that it has raised its year-end estimates ofproved natural gas reserves by 45% to 1,467 Bcf, and proved naturalgas liquids by 18% to 210 MM barrels.

Cash quotes continued to rise Wednesday in both swing deals fortoday and in what little bit of bidweek business remained to bedone. However, doubt was growing about how much longer theunprecedented recent price strength can be maintained after futuresreacted negatively to a storage report for the first time in morethan a month.