Settle

The Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday that Duke Energy has agreed to settle charges of violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 involving internal accounting control deficiencies that allowed three Duke Energy traders to misclassify $56.2 million in trading losses between Jan. 1, 2001 and June 30, 2002 in order to receive larger year-end bonuses. The three were indicted in April 2004 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas (see Daily GPI, April 22, 2004).

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. late Tuesday agreed to pay $2.2 billion to settle a class action lawsuit filed by Enron Corp. investors, which tops the $2 billion settlement reached by Citigroup Inc. earlier this month (see Daily GPI, June 13).

Calgary-based producer Canadian Superior last week said it will pay US$3.2 million to settle all class action lawsuits in the United States over its Mariner I-85 exploration well offshore Nova Scotia.

Calgary-based producer Canadian Superior said Wednesday it will pay US$3.2 million to settle all class action lawsuits in the United States over its Mariner I-85 exploration well offshore Nova Scotia.

ExxonMobil Corp. reported its highest-ever quarter on Monday, with net income of $8.42 billion ($1.30/share), including a special item of $2.23 billion to settle a long-running U.S. tax dispute. However, oil and natural gas production barely managed to break even globally, and in North America, output was substantially lower.

Continuing the seesaw theme of the week that has seen higher and lower days alternate, February natural gas futures on Wednesday settled 6.9 cents lower at $5.833 as traders turned their attention to Thursday’s release of the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) natural gas storage report for the week ended Dec. 31.

The limbo pole was moved one peg lower Tuesday as natural gas futures continued to fall, notching its fourth consecutive close lower in regular session trading. December natural gas settled down 12.9 cents at $7.471.

The limbo pole was moved one peg lower Tuesday as natural gas futures continued to fall, notching its fourth consecutive close lower in regular session trading. December natural gas settled down 12.9 cents at $7.471.

Continuing the downward trend, December natural gas futures fell 24.5 cents Friday to settle below the $8 mark at $7.954. For the week, the prompt month fell 77.1 cents from the previous Friday’s $8.725 close.