Sell

Until a major sell-off came Friday, it appeared that priceswould realize fairly substantial week-to-week increases, thankslargely to double-digit gains that started the week off lastMonday. But Friday declines that constituted almost a mirror-imagereversal of Monday’s upticks left most points flat to just a fewcents above week-earlier levels. Northern California (Malin andPG&E citygate) showed the most strength, rising almost a dimeabove the previous Friday.

Calpine Corp., Texas’ largest independent power producer,announced plans last week to build, own and operate an 800 MWnatural gas-fired cogeneration power plant at Bayer Corp.’schemical facility in Baytown, TX. Permitting for the $335 millionfacility is under way, the company said. The plant is expected tobegin commercial operation in late 2001.

Taking advantage of the hot market for natural gas-firedgeneration TXU Electric put six gas-fired generating plants with acombined capacity of 3,116 MW on the market last week.

A room full of producers was asked last week in Houston whetherthey would contract to sell gas for $3 for 10 years, adjusted forinflation. Only a smattering of hands went up. Clearly, optimismhas returned to the industry.

A room full of producers was asked yesterday in Houston whetherthey would contract to sell gas for $3.00 for 10 years, adjustedfor inflation. Only a small smattering of hands went up. Clearly,optimism has returned to the industry.

UtiliCorp United agreed to sell its West Virginia Power divisionto Allegheny Energy Inc. for $75 million in cash. In addition,separate transactions include a 20-year supply agreement forUtiliCorp’s Aquila Energy unit to provide gas to Allegheny, and anagreement for Allegheny to purchase Appalachian Electric Heating,UtiliCorp’s heating and air conditioning service operations in WestVirginia. A spokesman said details of the gas supply and otheragreements are confidential.

UtiliCorp United agreed to sell its West Virginia Power divisionto Allegheny Energy Inc. for $75 million in cash. In addition,separate transactions include a 20-year supply agreement forUtiliCorp’s Aquila Energy unit to provide gas to Allegheny, and anagreement for Allegheny to purchase Appalachian Electric Heating,UtiliCorp’s heating and air conditioning service operations in WestVirginia. A spokesman said details of the gas supply and otheragreements are confidential.

Taking a cue from Thursday’s Access trade sell-off, the futuresmarket continued lower Friday as traders fully discounted thecurrent trio of storms by aggressively exiting their longpositions. By 2:40 p.m., the September contract had fallen justshort of filling in the chart gap down to $2.805. However, $2.83was all that the sellers could muster and prices rallied in thelast 30 minutes of trading. The September contract settled at$2.912, down 3.6 cents for the day but up more than 8 cents fromits earlier low.

Eastern Enterprises stock price jumped more than 13% last weekto more than $44/share on news it is evaluating strategicalternatives that could include share repurchases, joint venturesor a sale of all or part of the company.