Sell

Western Resources yesterday threatened to cut its losses andsell the company to a national energy conglomerate because of adecision by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to reopen thedocket on its merger with Kansas City Power and Light. The KCCissued an order late Monday to reopen the merger docket because ofa stipulation and agreement Western signed with the Missouri PublicService Commission staff and others in the Missouri docket.

The sell-off continued Friday at Nymex as traders liquidatedlong positions ahead of the weekend in response to some blaringtechnical factors and in anticipation of moderating temperaturesthis week in key gas consuming regions. The September contractprobed lower to finish down 2.6 cents at $2.543 Friday. Estimatedvolume of 78,445 was low relative to the preceding five-straight,100,000-plus trading sessions.

Two top-10 national energy marketers, Aquila Energy and EngageEnergy, started doing business July 29 in California on EnergyMarketplace, the retail natural gas and electricity Internetshopping center operated by Southern California Gas Co. Decliningto provide dollar or transaction volume statistics on the nearlytwo-year-old site, the nation’s first retail energy Internetshopping site, a SoCalGas spokesperson would only say that thereare other major announcements regarding Energy Marketplace that arepending and should be made in the near future.

Even as temperatures were shattering records throughout much ofthe Northeast,sending electricity prices spiking near $1000/MWhTuesday, natural gas futures were hit with a wave of selling tokick off the week. Speculative fund traders, who have been longpositions for almost three months now, were prominent sellersearly. But trade and local selling was not far behind, sending theAugust contract to its lowest level since the middle of April. Theprompt month finished down 9.6 cents at $2.191, after carving out a$2.16 bottom. Estimated volume was a robust 124,967.

“Close, but no cigar,” was one trader’s apt description of theprice action yesterday in the natural gas pit at the New YorkMercantile Exchange. A session that saw the prompt month unable tobreak stubborn resistance near $2.40. After an early dip, the Julycontract spent much of the session near its $2.39 high beforeplummeting lower at the close. July finished at $2.343, down 1.5cents.

After tumbling 8.1 cents lower in Tuesday’s sell-off, the marketseemed to take a breather yesterday with neither bulls nor bearsable to influence price movemnet in their favor. The June contractwas limited to a tight 4-cent trading range, slipping just 0.8cents to finish at $2.254. Estimated volume was moderate, with67,082 contracts changing hands.

Shell Oil affiliate Tejas Energy agreed to sell its Transokaffiliate to Enogex Inc. for about $700 million, which includesEnogex’s assumption of $173 million of long-term debt. Transok isheadquartered in Tulsa and operates more than 5,000 miles ofpipelines with capacity of about 2.5 Bcf/d and nine gas processingand treating plants.

Independent producer Titan Exploration Inc. announced Monday ithas agreed to sell all of its Gulf of Mexico assets to Coastal Oil& Gas for $71.3 million in cash plus overriding royaltyinterests in certain properties. The deal, which is expected toclose May 18th, comes on the heels of the completion of the sale ofits Louisiana onshore properties to Phoenix Oil and Gas Ltd. for$5.4 million in cash.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline has asked FERC to declare five lateralsin Texas as non-jurisdictional gathering and allow it to abandonand sell them to affiliate El Paso Field Services. The WestMagnolia, Chesterville, Bay City, Hungerford, and Village MillsLateral Systems fit the description of gathering, Tennessee said,adding that they currently are little used. The pipeline said it isno longer necessary for it to own the gathering lines since it nolonger sells bundled gas services. Detaching them from theTennessee system will “improve Tennessee’s ability to streamlineits mainline transmission operations.” Also the systems would bebetter able to compete with other unregulated gathering services ifthey are not tied to a jurisdictional pipeline.