Soon

Given the amount of new generation coming online, observers of energy trading markets shouldn’t expect to see the return of volatility to those markets in the short term, a top executive with Allegheny Energy Global Markets told an audience of investment professionals attending a Deutsche Bank-sponsored electric power conference last Tuesday.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and about a half a dozen other senators plan to soon introduce a “modified” version of her amendment to re-regulate the trading of over-the-counter (OTC) energy derivatives, a spokesman for her office said Monday. This marks the second time that Feinstein’s controversial measure to the Senate omnibus energy bill (S. 517) has been revised.

In a post-primary election political swing through the state last Wednesday, California’s Attorney General Bill Lockyer told news media his office is about to file lawsuits against merchant power generators stemming from last year’s electricity crisis. The legal actions could come as early as this week, but the reaction from the independent power producers’ association in the state was “we’ve heard this before.”

The Williams Cos. expects a restructuring of $1.4 billion in notes issued by the WCG Note Trust, an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Williams Communications Group Inc., to be completed in the “very near future,” after favorable talks with investors.

Cambridge Energy Research Associate’s Tom Robinson said this week that by the end of the year his firm expects gas market fundamentals to begin showing signs of improving with the gas supply bubble deflating significantly. And while there will be plenty of supply through 2002, said Robinson, it will, of course, depend on how hot it is this summer.

Anxious Houston-based employees Friday were waiting for formal news that their employer, Enron Corp., had filed for bankruptcy, expected to be the largest in U.S. history, and waited to learn whether layoffs will begin in the United States as they have in Europe. Across the country, others kept an eye on whether Enron would file a lawsuit against its short-term merger partner Dynegy Corp. for backing out of the transaction last week. Meanwhile, companies that had once dealt with the former trend-setting energy trader began tallying their own expected losses should Enron go under, and in Washington, DC, legislators announced they would begin investigating exactly who knew what when.

It’s too soon to tell whether Dynegy Corp.’s proposed merger with Enron Corp. will be approved by federal regulators, but the most critical problem may not be how big the two companies’ trading power will be, but how much Enron’s shrinks over the next few months, analysts noted last week. If Enron regains and retains the number one position it held just weeks ago, federal approval may be questionable; if Enron’s market share is diluted, the merger may stand a better chance of succeeding.

It’s too soon to tell whether Dynegy Corp.’s proposed merger with Enron Corp. will be approved by federal regulators, but the most critical problem may not be how big the two companies’ trading power will be, but how much Enron’s shrinks over the next few months, noted analysts on Thursday. If Enron regains and retains the number one position it held just weeks ago, federal approval may be questionable; if Enron’s market share is diluted, the merger may stand a better chance of succeeding.

Kansas City, MO-based UtiliCorp United Inc. has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for authorization “as soon as practicable” to re-acquire the nearly 20% interest in its natural gas and power marketer, Aquila Inc., that it sold to the public earlier in the year. Upon the completion of the transaction, the company plans to adopt Aquila as its corporate name possibly as early as the first quarter of 2002.