Sinks

The number of gas and power mergers and acquisitions across the globe fell sharply in 2003 to a historical low, but gas deals fared the worst, plummeting 91% in terms of total value, according to an annual report released Monday in London by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Brought down by the company’s increased LNG terminal development expenses, Cheniere Energy Inc. posted a net loss of $2,387,021, or $0.16 per share, for the third quarter of 2003 compared with a net loss of $1,474,972, or $0.11 per share, a year earlier.

Brought down by the company’s increased LNG terminal development expenses, Cheniere Energy Inc. posted a net loss of $2,387,021, or $0.16 per share, for the third quarter of 2003 compared with a net loss of $1,474,972, or $0.11 per share, a year earlier.

Nicor Inc. has been informed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it plans to bring civil charges against the company stemming from the questionable accounting practices at its retail energy joint venture with Dynegy Inc.

Tropical Storm Bertha, which made landfall in southeastern Louisiana Monday morning before being downgraded to a tropical depression, had no impact on production and provided no impetus for the September natural gas futures contract to stage a rally. Instead, September plunged sharply lower at the open and proceeded to bust through prior support in the high $2.70s before resting at $2.678 at the end of the day, the lowest level on the spot continuation chart since the first week in March.

For anyone holding Enron Corp. stock one year ago this week, things could not have seemed better. The closing price on Oct. 30, 2000 was $80.68, and the following day, Halloween, shares gained almost $2 to close at $82.06. Today at Enron, however, things look a lot spookier. And despite the plethora of information unmasked by the Houston-based company in the past two weeks, the investment community still seems anxious about any other tricks still to be revealed within the energy trading giant’s complex financial holdings.

For anyone holding Enron Corp. stock one year ago this week, things could not have seemed better. The closing price on Oct. 30, 2000 was $80.68, and the following day, Halloween, shares gained almost $2 to close at $82.06. Today at Enron, however, things look a lot spookier. And despite the plethora of information unmasked by the Houston-based company in the past two weeks, the investment community still seems anxious about any other tricks still to be revealed within the energy trading giant’s complex financial holdings.

With little in the way of fresh fundamental or technicalimpetuous, natural gas futures were quiet in an abbreviatedpre-holiday trading session Friday, giving traders a moment tofocus on the next price move. Just about dead center of its$5.45-67 trading range, the March contract’s $5.568 close was 2.6cents lower for the session and 64.2 cents lower for the week.

AES Corp. has set the table to take another big bite of theMidwest power generation market after agreeing to buy IPALCOEnterprises Inc. of Indiana for $3.04 billion in stock and assumeddebt. The Arlington, VA, power plant developer, which expects toclose the sale early in 2001, plans to build additional facilitiesin IPALCO’s Indiana territory and eventually begin sellingelectricity in the growing Chicago marketplace.