Settle

Sempra Energy and its California utility subsidiaries, Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric, agreed to settle with 12 plaintiffs in the “Continental Forge” class action lawsuit over the weekend. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, the multibillion dollar case involving allegations of natural gas price manipulation continues in California Superior Court in San Diego County. Jury selection started last week.

After opening on Wednesday 28 cents lower than Tuesday’s settle, January natural gas quickly found support at $13.630 before exploring higher. Fluctuating weather reports and storage uncertainty allowed traders to push the prompt month to the day’s high of $14.400 before closing a few minutes later at $14.271, up 19.1 cents on the day.

Finishing higher for only the second day out of eight, December natural gas futures on Monday climbed 45.8 cents to settle at $11.873. Despite the sizeable jump, one broker said the downtrend is still healthy, adding that Monday’s price action was just a short-covering rally.

Continuing the week’s trend lower, December natural gas futures on Wednesday travelled as low as $11.49, before bumping slightly higher to settle at $11.604, down 25.6 cents on the day. Traders now await Thursday morning’s natural gas storage report for the week ended Oct. 28, which technically marks the end of the injection season, as the next indicator on the market’s price level.

One day after natural gas futures traders put in a meteoric trading session resulting in a spot month record settle of $14.338, the November contract, which expires Thursday, used Wednesday to teeter back and forth from positive to negative territory. Ultimately, the prompt month ended up shedding some of Tuesday’s gains by closing 29.8 cents lower at $14.04.

Williams said it agreed to pay $55 million to settle a class action lawsuit Monday. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit are former employees who participated in the company’s 401(k) retirement plan during a period that began prior to July 24, 2000.

Reliant Energy has agreed to pay $68 million, and its accounting firm, Deloitte & Touche, agreed to pay $7 million to settle class action lawsuits by former Reliant shareholders who alleged that the companies failed to disclose in documents related to Reliant’s initial public offering (IPO) in April 2001 that it engaged in round-trip energy trading in an effort to exaggerate its revenues and trading volumes.

As it begins to settle in as a pure-play exploration and production company, Kerr-McGee Corp. reported Wednesday that natural gas output surged 51% over a year ago, mostly on the acquisition of Denver-based Westport Resources Inc. last year (see Daily GPI, April 8, 2004), and the ramp-up of production at Red Hawk in the deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico.

Enron Corp. agreed late Monday to a $356.25 million payment to settle litigation against the company regarding its bankrupt retirement plans that were brought by the Department of Labor (DOL) and former and current employees.